Mirrored Fates
by long night of solace
Summary: After the defeat of the didact, the galactic hero of the halo universe - Masterchief and his loyal blue team members embark on a strange new journey to an unknown universe in which later they come into contact with that universe's hero - Commander Shepard. Facing an unknown enemy, fighting a new war, its up to the heroes to save the day together.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello guyz! This is my first fiction story involving a crossover between halo and mass effect. This story takes place just at the end of '** _ **Halo:Escalation-The next 72 hours'**_ **and during Mass effect 2 that continues to Mass effect 3.  
**

 **On the side note, Jorge-052 is alive and lives aboard the infinity crew after being rescued in an unknown space. Carter-A259 is also alive. That will be explained.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect, for the former belong to bungie/343 and the later to bioware. The following story is purely mine. This is 100% AU based story line.**

 **Chapter 1: Strange turn of events**

 **Installation 03**

 **July 26, 2557**

"What just happened!? This monitor has nothing to do with the halo, yet it attacked me for building and bringing my army into this facility. Had it's governing protocol been changed? That explains it's behavior" thought the Didact, confused, after being shot by 859-Static cirillon (monitor of the composer's forge) at the back and teleported to installation 03's control center.

"So the builders restricted my access to ' _their'_ installations, even after a long time" Didact said to himself gritting.

When the installation's monitor failed to respond after being queried about the service portal between the composer' forge and halo-03 which was activated , Static took temporary control over the halo and was annoyed at Didact for bringing the mechanical prometheans to the ring world. This is because, the ring worlds are forerunner builder constructs and prometheans are forbidden (promethean - builder rivalry).

Didact lost the index where he was shot and got teleported empty handed. The blue team got their eyes on the index which the forerunner dropped.

"Chief! Now what do we do?" asked kelly-087 after the blue team recovered from Didact's sweeping attack. Chief took a time to respond, his visor broken. he had to do something or it will be late to stop the rogue forerunner. But chief has the habit of improvising and adapting to situations so quickly. He then got an idea.

"We need a plan...static! Can you contact the halo's monitor?" asked chief with little hope.

" _No reclaimer, The monitor Abject Testament failed to respond when I contacted him to query about a service portal" replied Static.  
_ Chief frowned at the response. He needed the halo's monitor to work with the ring.

"*SIGH*...Now that complicates things" said Fred-104 nodding dismissively. The situation further caused dismay. When the team felt the hope was gone, something hit the Chief's mind.

"Static, What are your exact primary functions?" asked Chief.

"I am a promethean construct designed to be the over seer of the composer's forge at the place designated - 'Clinquant'"

"But you attacked the Didact, who's a promethean himself" said Linda.

"I did because I had to stop him from leading his prometheans to the installation which is beyond his jurisdiction. So I temporarily changed my operational parameters what would eventually fulfill the halo monitor's role" replied Static.

"Exactly! Can you override your protocols once more to take control of the halo?" asked Chief. Now his team members understood what their leader was getting to.

"And so that we can stop him from using the ring" said Kelly. The Static was silent for the moment analyzing the query and then spoke.

"Hm, If you give me access to the installation, I can instantly take control of it's entire security and service networks for the time being" replied the monitor. Chief then walked over the index and took it into his hands. This is the reply that master chief was waiting for. After getting what he needed,

"Get me to the control center so that I could end this" said the Chief. Suddenly, the mechanical promethean watchers and soldiers swarmed their location.

"Oh-oh! We got a whole army to fight" said Kelly.

"Dammit! Team, stay here and defend this region. Static and I will take care of the Didact" ordered Chief.

"Roger that Chief and good luck" replied Fred to which he received a green blink in his visor.

"Alright let's take care of these machines" said Fred and the three took covering positions and open fired at the prometheans.

Chief then turned to the monitor, "Let's go"

"B _e ready for the jump_ " replied the monitor and immediately both were teleported out of the place.

In the control room, Didact was so furious that he's one step back from firing the ring and destroy humanity. When Chief and Static cirillon arrived, Didact saw them and the index in Chief's hand.

"Give me the Index human" said the Didact and then turned to the monitor, "You know where your duties lie!"

"I transferred my baseline priorities based on two crucial data I obtained recently. One being to act on behalf of Abject testament due to his absence and the other is to prevent you from bringing your abominations here which is beyond your jurisdiction" replied Static. Didact angrily grunted in response.

"Are you going to use that against me?" asked the Didact to Chief to which he didn't respond.

"Why do you want to use the most powerful weapon against a single being?" Didact asked chief, still confused with his ideals and his striving to defeat him even if he knew he can't.

Chief replied "You killed my friend, you killed millions of humans, you tried to kill me. I've tried to end you with blades, with guns, with explosives, by knocking you into slipspace and none of it worked. But, I bet this does" replied Chief, showing him the index and immediately he inserted it in the holo panel and used two holographic cylinder looking console nearby and turned both the cylinders clockwise and pulled those out slightly. This act shut down the halo's main weaponry and safety systems and directed the primary control nodes belonging to halo's actual monitor to Static.

"The ring is your's now. Do what you have to" said chief to the monitor.

"Of course reclaimer. I now possess interim control over this installation" Static replied cheerfully.

Then it used the control panel to remove he control room segment of the halo ring and made it to free fall directly into the composer's forge.

Didact angrily growled "What have you done human?"

Chief was immediately teleported to another safety region of the ring witnessing the Didact along with a part of halo crashing over the composer's forge. The Didact was immediately hit by multiple composer beams that did something to him, but he vanished none the less.

Then Static transported the Chief to his team who had finished killing the last of the mechanical soldiers.

"Chief, What just happened? This ring feels odd" asked Kelly.

"We saw a part of ring ejected out and suddenly it was like gravity's gone" said Linda.

"Didact can now rest in hell" said the Chief, relaxed.

"Huh, So he a goner? Fine, mission accomplished" replied Fred. But chief said not to be too sure as he knew that he's only been contained knowing the true nature of the composer. But everyone's relieved that the devil that were haunting them had been exorcised. They all turned to face the monitor.

" _Thank you reclaimer. With the didact gone, I can carry out my work here peacefully, for I have a new purpose from now on. I will transport this installation to the safety for refit and repair, for you are free to leave the installation anytime_ " said the monitor to the blue team with enthusiasm.

Chief nodded and turned to face his team, but suddenly a cold chill and darkness filled his mind. His vision to distort. Chief started to lose balance over his body and grunted pressing his helmet with his palms and knelt down. His friends started to worry about him.

"Chief! what is it? What happened?" asked Fred, after seeing him acting weird. Monitor's eye was stoically fixed at the Chief.

There was a sharp cry and a growling scream, both of which he recognized. Then a blurred figure appeared, saying his name in a long echoed voice.

" _ **Get here!...Time is SHHHOORRRTTT..."**_ said the ever familiar voice then series of architectures, tall structures and a strange mysterious tower like structure which was emitting a sharp laser beam like light to the top of the atmosphere into the vanishing point appeared which he didn't recognize. But then appeared a silhouette of a woman John would never forget. It was Cortana. John couldn't believe what he saw. Then the silhouette turned into a glyph, A forerunner symbol he didn't understand. Then this all stopped.

Chief's senses came back to normal and noticed Kelly placing her hand on his right shoulder. He then stood slowly and turned to look at everyone. Even though he couldn't see their faces, they were worried.

"Chief, what happened?" asked Linda. "Reclaimer, what was that? I recorded an unusual neural activity in your brain" said Static.

"I saw or I think I saw...Cortana" said Chief which alarmed the three. But even Chief couldn't believe it.

"What?" shocked linda-058.

"But Chief, she is gone already. You saw what happened to her. She died saving you from Didact above Earth" said Fred-104, soaking himself in dilemma.

"Not just yet. I saw this too" said Chief as he knelt down and used his index finger to draw the forerunner glyph in the sand. The three didn't recognize what it was.

"What is that? A forerunner glyph" asked kelly-087 in confusion. Static immediately recognized the glyph.

"THIS _...can't be!"_ exclaimed Static Cirillon, but in a low voice but enough to get the blue team's attention.

"You know what it is?" asked Linda-058 to the monitor.

" _This glyph represents a shield installation_ " explained 859 Static cirillon, his voice expressing disbelief and dilemma.

"A shield world? Like Requiem?" asked Fred-104.

" _Yes. This glyph represents the installation -'Iridescent'_ "

"Do you know how were I able to see see it? I also saw many architectures, forerunner structures, More like a city" Said chief.

" _It must be Iridescent. Someone had used a long range directed neural beacon, a technology similar to the composer"_ explained Static.

" _I am wondering who sent the beacon about the installation which was a highly guarded secret even among some of our creators_ " said the static with surprise and confusion.

"What is this installation, exactly?" asked Chief still with some headache.

" _Iridescent is a construct made by our creators for Research and Development, any thing that gives the forerunners an edge to whatever they are up to. That is why it was a closely guarded secret for 150,000 years prior to their encounter with the flood parasite. No one but only select few forerunner builders and warriors including Didact and the constructs like me are aware of its exact location_ "

"Why would someone hide a planet? I mean, We found the Requiem, Onyx, but why hide this?" asked kelly-087.

" _Like I said, Iridescent is a unique construct with full of Research and development facilities. Combat skins, weapons, starships, AI constructs, the list goes on. When the flood proved effective in turning our own tactics against us, my creators predicted that if the facility gets into flood's hands, then nothing could stop them. The composer and his massive ship Mantle's approach were seeded out from that very facility_ " explained the Static.

"But that doesn't explain why I got these visions" said Chief.

"I _t's a cryptic message, Reclaimer. Our creators used this method to transmit and receive encrypted short messages. Warrior servants use this in their combat skins to communicate with their fellow soldiers even at astronomical distances. You humans are new to this, maybe that's why you didn't understand. My creators could easily understand this. This served well at times of war and other conflicts. It is immune to interception_ " said the monitor to the chief.

"That's crazy as it sounds, but what does it mean now?" asked Fred.

 _"Clearly it's a message to you. You have been called, may be the monitor of that facility that I'm not sure"_ replied Static.

"What do you suggest?" asked the Chief.

" _If its not trouble to you, then I suggest you investigating this. Besides, that facility is intended for you reclaimers, as decided by my creators"_ said Static.

"Could it be Cortana like you said? Did she send the beacon?" asked Kelly.

"We don't know for sure. But this is something I'm not willing to slip out. It's worth checking it out" said Chief.

There was a moment of enthusiasm among the blue team. If humanity could study the technologies in that facility, then the could once again regain their glory. But that thought was immediately shelved. They first need to check on facility and see who was it that actually called them.

"Before that, I need to ask you something. Is that place safe, I mean we don't need any surprises" asked Linda.

" _Absolutely. While I'm not sure, who triggered the beacon, I can say that it's definitely not your enemies or any other people. Like I said, It's heavily guarded and no one can find it"_ said the static to the team.

"In that case, we are ready to go. How are we suppose to get there?" asked Kelly.

" _There is a special slipspace teleportation system in every forerunner construct. It is used at times of extreme emergency. This helps in travel only between forerunner constructs instantaneously_ " explained the monitor.

"Where is it?" asked the Chief.

" _It is in an underground chamber with in this installation. Let me teleport you all there_ " said the monitor and teleported them to the chamber.

The blue team and the monitor reached a large dark room beneath the ring's surface. The room was quite similar to the installation-04's control room, but a smaller version of it. Only a pathway of some 5meters wide where they are standing was barely visible with a series of floor marker lights on both sides along the pathway. The pathway looks like it's just suspending in air using artificial gravity or with one end hinged to a wall. But that's not visible.

"C _ome_ " said the monitor and the blue team followed it in the lightened pathway.

"Well, anyone's got any idea of what and when to tell the HIGHCOM if they decide we went missing?" asked Fred to which others turned their face towards him while walking.

"Well, after we complete this new found mission. This could be a bonus for them" said Chief to which Fred chuckled.

Finally they reached the end of the pathway where they saw a large circle shaped gateway attached to the floor.

" _This is it reclaimer. Now I'll open the portal_ " the monitor said and used a console nearby entering the coordinates for Iridescent. Suddenly a large portal appeared in the circular gateway. The blue team looked at it with no idea of what to do next but feeling like they had to move on.

" _My job here is done. I hope you all will find what you seek. I must leave now to repair the ring world_ " said Static.

"And thank you for helping on our mission" replied Chief. The monitor then left the place by teleporting out.

The blue team slowly walked towards the portal. Then everyone vanished and the portal closed behind them. Masterchief and his teammates thus embarks on a strange new journey.

 **UNSC Security Council**

 **HIGHCOM facility Bravo-6**

Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence hood was waiting for a long time to get a word from blue team regarding their mission. It was in fact a personal favor for lord hood which Masterchief accepted to investigate. But now he's started to worry as the mission has taken too long. Hood immediately contacted the NAVCOM.

"NAVCOM, This is fleet admiral Hood. Did you manage to intercept any radio transmission from the blue team?"

"Negative sir! Last transmission ended 2 days before" replied the NAVCOM.

"Acknowledged, Hood out" replied Hood and cut the channel.

"Dammit! what happened to them!?" thought the admiral who was tensed.

 **Note: I'm a great fan of both halo and mass effect. But I don't exactly recall the in game dialogues spoken. So I've managed to stay true to the story line with some alterations in the spoken words. please don't mistake me if it offended anyone.**

 **Don't forget to review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello guyz! I saw the reviews. Thank you for pinpointing the mistakes and suggestions. I will try my best. As being asked, this story won't feature guardians. But there are new upgrades waiting for the master chief and his friends.**

 **Disclaimer: I donot own Halo or Mass effect. This story is purely mine.**

 **Chapter 2: A brand new start.**

 **Forerunner Shield world - IRIDESCENT, Outer edge of the perseus arm**

 **July 26, 2557**

Chief and his team suddenly emerged out the slipspace portal in the planet's surface. The portal opened in the same circular gateway but somewhere in the middle of a forest. Everyone's so confused as to where they have landed. There were trees on both left and right from where they are standing. But a pathway is visible in front of them to walk. Between the tree gaps light from the artificial sunlight passes through as the exterior is usually closed and sealed like Requiem. They started walking along the pathway.

"Is this the place Static said about?" asked Fred.

Before anyone could respond, suddenly a monitor similar to guilty spark and Penitant tangent appeared flying in front of them. While not the blue team in general, Chief has a great experience in working with Spark which he can never forget. At th last moments of finishing the war, Spark turned rampant killed his good friend Johnson and almost got him but managed to kill or disable it. That incident left a bad taste in his mouth so, he never fully trusts them.

The team raised their weapons in caution.

Chief spoke first "Identify yourself!"

" _Greetings Reclaimers! I'm 061-Primal Radiance, monitor of this forerunner construct Iridescent. We were waiting for your arrival_ " the monitor welcomed the blue team in it's ever cheerful voice. They were relieved that they had safely reached their destination.

"We were called by someone from this facility while we were on installation-03" said Chief. Radiance blinked for a moment looking at the four and then spoke,

" _So you did receive the message, good! Then follow me into the city and we will answer all your questions_ " said the monitor plainly and started moving.

"We?" muttered Linda confused at the plural mention. They didn't know if there were anyone else. Before she could ask the monitor, it had already reached far side of the path.

"Let's go" said Chief.

They all followed the monitor to the city gates. Radiance used a console to open the gate. The four saw massive structures of forerunner design and also floating buildings within and beyond the city walls. The overall size of the city was so big that it couldn't actually be called a city. Everyone one were dumbstruck with the magnificent view. On their way they saw flowing water stream, and in the distant beyond the city, large hills with cloud covering the top. Also they saw several new varieties of shrubs and grasses with beautiful flowers. Within the city, the floor was like being made of metal in pristine condition. The ambience had an evening effect. Overall it was a pleasing view. But something was odd with it's internal appearance.

Kelly managed to look at the top sky region or what appears to be the sky. She immediately recognized that it wasn't real and that it was the upper curvature habitat and that they are inside a hollow spherical surface. She knew it as she had been to another similar facility called Trevelyan with Halsey, Mendez and some spartan IIIs. It was a dyson shell with in a 23 cm slipspace bubble. But she didn't know the size of the bubble that holds this place, but she can say that Iridescent too was a shield world with a dyson shell, which means like Onyx, Iridescent shield world can also be destroyed with the separated bubble.

"Hm, Look at THIS!" said Fred-104 at the sight of the city.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" replied Linda-058.

Everyone took their time to enjoy the beauty around.

"I've been to Requiem, but anyone could say it's artificial" thought the Chief.

They realized there was no threat so they holstered their weapons. The monitor interrupted their gaze.

" _Reclaimers, the first place we are about to visit is the forerunner Ancilla Research facility. One of the main reasons you are brought here_ " said the monitor and then it took them a long way into the city.

"Ancilla? It's a forerunner term for AIs" said Chief wondering why they would be brought there.

Then they reached a building carrying a glyph generally representing forerunner AIs. The monitor opened the door and everyone entered a large room. There, the blue team saw sentinels being upgraded with new software in the respective terminals. The monitor took them to another shaft. There they walked along a lengthy platform. at the end and saw a large holographic terminal with multiple displays. One display was showing a scan of an AI's neural matrix.

"What is this place Radiance?" asked the Kelly seeing those terminals.

" _This is the main forerunner AI Research terminal where Ancillas like me are designed and given primary functions_ " replied the monitor.

"So did monitors like Spark and Tangent were created here?" asked Chief, curiously. But Radiance didn't get surprised when he said those names.

" _Yes. So, How is 343 guilty spark? I lost contact with him years back. As you mentioned his name, I thought you would know"_ said Radiance which made Chief to go back in memories of the end war in 2552.

Chief then explained everything that happened on the Ark and how it turned out bad for him and his comrades at the end. Kelly, Linda and Fred already knew about this as Chief had told them before.

After listening to John's story, Radiance let a sigh.

" _Too sad to hear Guilty Spark had turned rampant but not unexpected. Hm, He was always special to among us"_ said the monitor in a sullen tone. While the blue team can understand his feelings regarding the death of a fellow monitor, they couldn't understand why Spark was special to them.

"Why are you so much into him?" asked Fred reading John's mind. The monitor who faced the screen turned to face him.

" _I thought you-...Right, no way you could have known. Spark was the first monitor created through the mental imprint of an organic being"_ replied the monitor.

"You mean he was created with an organic being's personality?" asked Linda in doubt.

" _Yes"_ replied the monitor and then again turned to face the screen and was working on it.

"Not interested with the fate of Penitent Tangent?" asked Chief trying to get the monitor back on line. Chief had a short encounter with the monitor of installation 05. But once he got to see the monitor being held captive by the flood grave mind, he knew that it was beyond any help.

" _I know what happened to it. But seems your people did the best job in putting the entire ring to quarantine after the flood broke loose a long time ago"_ replied the monitor which stunned the blue team. They were wondering how Radiance knew everything as if it had seen them. It's not that they doubt the abilities of the forerunner AI, but the monitor was talking about Infinity securing the installation 05 a few years back. The spartans were unsure if the monitor of this facility had any sensors on every forerunner installation to feed it of all that's happening.

The blue team began to have a feeling of oddity around them. Till then, they weren't briefed on why they were there but were already startled with Radiance getting on their nerves with classified information. Before they could speak, the monitor turned once again to talk,

" _Reclaimers, why don't you take rest inside the opposite building, while I get there in minute to talk?"_ asked Radiance. The blue team warily glanced at one another and without a word, they left the facility.

...

The blue team walked outside once again to get the pleasant view of the city with a thousand questions in their mind.

"Well, I think the monitor's acting weird. So far, it didn't tell us anything, but already giving out UNSC classified data" abhorred Kelly.

"Me too. I think we need to query this monitor, Radiance when it comes to talk to us" replied Linda. Chief understood their caution as he too didn't like what happened but they have to play this safe as this wasn't their domain. And things didn't seem hostile till then.

"We'll get inside that building and wait, then figure something else" said Chief to which others acknowledged. Then the spartans made their way towards the building the monitor pointed out, for which the door automatically opened when they stepped in front of it. After that, the four went inside to look at a big hall with lots of forerunner decorations, holograms on the walls, flower vases, beautiful lighting that made the spartans to whistle in amusement. They never thought forerunners had this kind of taste though aware of the luxury they preferred evidently in all the explored forerunner facilities. They assumed the hall to be some sort of relaxation place and all took their seats and waited for the monitor.

After 5 minutes, the monitor Radiance came through the door and reached the hall where the spartans were seated and relaxed. It turned to face them and then moved towards them only for the team to see him coming and they stood up in response.

" _Thanks for your patience, reclaimers"_ said the monitor.

"Why did you bring us here? Right from the beginning, nothing made sense with what's going on here" asked the Chief slightly graveled.

"How did you know that 'WE' secured the installation-05? Were you watching us?" asked Kelly as the spartans looked at the monitor for response.

" _This facility primarily serves as the research and development center for my makers. I am the chief monitor here and only certain individuals are privy to this facility's existence"_ said the monitor. The spartans were confused by it's statement.

"You mean this facility's hidden even among your people? _"_ asked Kelly including others wondering this much of secrecy maintained.

" _Yes. This was made to ensure that the flood never obtained the information about this facility. The parasite were capable of using our technology against us and even worse, had the ability to negate it"_ replied the monitor. The spartans would understand the importance of this facility as they knew what the flood were capable of. While Kelly, Fred and Linda hadn't faced the parasite, John would know it's potential as he had fought them a lot and even almost got killed by it on halo-04.

"On a logical standpoint, that's reasonable. But that doesn't answer my question" said Kelly.

" _To answer your question, This facility also serves as the galactic archive for the forerunner's 10 million years history. But the main drawback is, the information about everything before 150,000 BCE stored here is quite inaccurate. From that timeline till today, I have been monitoring and archiving each and every incidents in this galaxy. That was how I know everything_ " replied the monitor. The blue team were astounded to hear that. All these times, they were unaware that they had been watched while the galaxy was on it's everyday routine.

"Why would you do that?" asked Linda.

" _Perhaps, after my creators, this facility rightfully belongs to you and when you do, It would be helpful for you to learn the history. Our achievements and our flaws. It would also help you in keep track of your history too"_ replied the monitor, but before the spartans could query further, a hologram appeared before Radiance which beeped like an alarm with a green signal. Radiance's eye lit brighter showing the state of highest level of satisfaction or happiness.

" _It's done! Reclaimers, you are about to get the answer for why you are here...Follow me!"_ said the monitor and started to move abruptly towards the door.

The spartans were relieved they would finally know what was the deal. They followed the monitor who entered the AI research facility. There the monitor took them through several turns and finally had them at the central chamber, where Radiance took the blue team at first. There they saw the holo-screen that had lots of images data and a green wink.

"Care to explain what's going on here?" asked Chief and the next thing everyone saw astonished them.

"How about you leave that honor to me?" came a familiar voice and then followed by immediate appearance of a blue colored holographic persona having digital code lines running through her body, someone the Chief thought would never see again, someone whom the Chief cared the most and mourned for her loss. She was young looking girl in her early twenties. The spartans glanced at each other and the Chief finally uttered the word,

"Cortana!" the Chief exclaimed. Fred, Kelly and Linda couldn't believe what they saw, even the Chief.

"It's been good to see you all back" said Cortana, feeling cheerful to see her guardian back.

"But, Chief saw you die protecting him. How could this?" asked Kelly in disbelief.

This is when the monitor started to explain to Chief " _Reclaimer, When Didact's ship was destroyed in the nuclear blast, your construct managed to use the last of her powers to raise a hardlight shield to protect you. But her core system was trapped in the mantle's approach. When the ship remains crashed into the slipspace. So I intercepted her personality matrix along with the intact parts of the core program and brought it here_ "

The spartans especially Chief felt the inner joy of seeing his friend back though he never expressed it in his face. It was hardly a week since he lost her along with the Didact's destroyed ship. But here she is, standing in front them at an unexpected place and time. Seeing her almost made John to forget that he lost her before.

"Not to sound ungrateful, But why would you do that?"asked the Chief puzzled as why this monitor would care anyway.

" _If I hadn't, Your ancilla might have ended up in a domain_ " replied the monitor. Others couldn't understand the monitor's resolve.

"John, there is much to tell. Here I learned a lot of things" said Cortana to which Chief simply looked her and then turned to monitor.

"Wait, how did you know all these things? Were you there during those events?" asked Chief straight to the point.

" _As I said, m_ _y duty is not only to maintain this planet, but also to record and archive each and every galactic event_ " explained the monitor of its true purpose.

"Yes Chief, Radiance gave me access to all those archives. He had been doing this and has everything since the pre-eminent times of the forerunners, rise of the species of our generations, even our conflicts...Everything! " said Cortana amazed.

With this information the four had a lot of catching to do. Whatever Cortana and Radiance said were a lot for them to process. Confusion and frustration in their faces. On one hand, they were happy that the Radiance had saved Cortana from her death. But the spartans knew that there was always something more than what meets the eye with forerunners. They knew the monitor would not have summoned them just to hand over the UNSC AI. This cautiousness had them keep aside all their fun mood and get serious about what's gonna happen next.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in, but let's not get ahead of ourselves" said Linda becoming momentous.

"But Cortana, You look normal. Weren't you suffering from rampancy? asked the Chief.

" _Indeed she was reclaimer. But now she is cured. After retrieving her core, i brought her to this main terminal. Here, she was researched and cured of her rampancy. By the time I brought her here, she already reached the meta-stable state. Now her data chip design is slightly modified and refitted with a forerunner memory crystal. It is capable of storing extensive information for at least 50,000 years. Also her processing power has been increased many times through slight alteration of her neural pattern which was collapsed during her rampancy caused by endless feedback loop. I would have never interfered if not for the domain_ " explained the monitor.

"What's wrong with this domain which prompted you to interfere in this matter?" asked Chief.

" _Domain is a mysterious repository of galactic knowledge used by my makers. No one knows it's true nature. But I know for certain, that after the halos were fired a 100,000 years ago, the domain ceased to exist. But sometime recently, I heard that there exist a domain in a builder world 'Genesis'. But the information stored here is contradictory. There should be no domain. Your ancilla Cortana was exactly headed to that world from your Earth. To prevent her from accidentally accessing any terminal what could be a trap, I brought her here_ " explained Radiance.

"You managed to archive very incident in the galaxy, Shouldn't it be easy for you to scan this planet 'Genesis' and check for yourself?" asked Fred.

" _For some reason, I couldn't get a read on the builder world. Archiving the events of the galaxy until my life span is one of my primary purpose, yet I couldn't get any feed from Genesis. But that should no longer matter as that installation had no visitors so far now" replied the monitor._

"Anyway Radiance, thanks for saving Cortana" thanked the Chief.

" _It was no problem reclaimer. I was doing my duty_ " said the monitor. Chief nodded and then turned to Cortana,

"So? how are you feeling ?" Chief asked.

"Great, Feels like I'm reborn" Cortana said with a smile and enthusiasm. Then Chief urged to ask her of that vision she sent him.

"Was it you that send that weird message? Or more of a vision?" asked Chief.

"Oh, yes. I used the directed Neural beacon to contact you. I wanted it to be secure. Actually, it is very similar to the composer. But human minds are primitive to it's working that's why it must have been weird. Definitely it would have showed me blabbering something" said Cortana to which Chief chuckled inside his helmet. Of course, that was the weirdest thing he felt in his life.

"I guess it's time to leave then" said Kelly.

"Not so fast people. You were brought here for an important reason, not just to retrieve me. Radiance would like to fill this in" said Cortana.

The blue team wondered what this was all about then, but they knew things would turnout like this.

"Alright, go ahead" said Chief.

" _This is the most important thing I wanted to tell you. I need your help as the time of great extinction is nearing"_ said the monitor in a serious tone. This bland statement raised tension among the group. This was blunt but carried more weight in each and every word. They were analyzing the possibilities.

"What is it? The flood?" asked Chief. He knew only flood was capable of such an extinction.

" _No, something that involves another galaxy's fate_ " said the monitor. This puzzled everyone except Cortana as she was already briefed.

"Another galaxy?" asked Fred even more mystified.

" _Y_ _es, A whole galaxy is about to go devoid of all sentient life. And this isn't the first time. It's been happening every 50,000 years_ "

John and the others felt speechless. They expected something else with in the Milky way that needed their attention but could see that the situation had already gone to a whole new level.

"Just feel like being thrown out of loop. Can you be brief so that we could understand?" asked Kelly. The monitor turned to look at the screen to turn it off and then turned again to blink at them. It moved forward past them that prompted the spartans to follow it.

" _Reclaimer, During the early conflicts between our creators and humans, Our librarian was on her journey to a star system in lagoon nebula in the Sagittarius arm, A blue giant. At a distance of approximately 0.01 light years from the star, she encountered a giant mysterious ring like object code named 'NEXUS' in the interstellar space with an active portal, which was in fact a massive black hole, but contained within. The librarian knew that the forerunners never created anything like this. There was also no evidence of any space faring species of that time to have created_ it" said the monitor.

John knew the librarian with his acquaintance on Requiem.

"So what's with this ring artifact?" asked Chief.

 _At a certain distance from the artifact, the librarian became influenced, thought to be a gravitational effect. But no, it was a beacon that entered deep in to her Visual cortex and filled in with nightmarish visions of a galaxy wide extinction caused by a highly advanced beings who were living for almost a billion years. She knew the visions never mentioned the milky way and that it is a portal that connects to a different part of the universe. But she couldn't let this go as the forerunners upheld the mantle of responsibility and she wished to extend it further and she failed. As all their resources had been exhausted in fighting humanity and the flood, So she decided to archive the necessary information, so that the future generations might learn of this and stop this cycle of extinction_ " finished the monitor.

"Cycle?" asked Kelly-087 and this time Cortana elected to answer.

"Yes. After the librarian encountered it, 50,000 years later Radiance picked up the same beacon but couldn't decipher it as it needed an organic mind. And now, again it has been detected. It seems to follow a certain pattern. Whatever it is, that galaxy is nearing it's end" replied Cortana.

After listening to this, Chief and his friends took some time to process all this information as this wasn't their usual thing. They could see already where this was headed to and also they knew that they had to be careful not to upset things. So they came to a conclusion rather quick as they felt like listening to a fairy tale.

"Alright listen, we need to get to Earth. It's already been a long time since we finished our mission. It's better to report them before they send another team to find us believing we are M.I.A. Perhaps, we could explain this to them and get aid if they chose to help" said Fred in a hurry not wanting to risk a court martial. Fred is the 2IC of the blue team though technically outranking the Chief. So he can voice his opinions if he felt it needed to be.

Chief, Kelly and Linda knew Fred was right in that regard. But as Spartan IIs they know their duties, more importantly Chief knew where his duties lie. They were created to protect humanity and that doesn't mean they blindly had to hate or kill others. Chief decided to take a look into this, besides, what are the chances that the UNSC would risk this expedition? Humanity had just now got to gather their former strength after a long brutal war. Thrusting themselves immediately into next conflict is something they would never do and even the Chief knew that. But they could at least try to do something about it. They may only be a 4 men team, but Spartans were only 33 in number turning the tide of the entire human - covenant war, they were always full of surprises.

"Before we commit to something like this, I need evidence. Can I interface with the signal and see it myself just like the librarian did?" asked Chief. Cortana was quite happy that John had taken the first step to see through the problem.

"Sure, The archives are present just in the adjacent structure. You can interface with the signal using the directed neural beacon generator" said the monitor.

"Then show me" said Chief. The monitor then asked Chief and his team to follow to the next structure. They got out of that facility and then entered the next structure which looked more or less the same as AI R&D facility. There they reached a huge chamber which was dark with lit up holograms and a never ending holographic archives stacked along the walls. Then the monitor took them near a twin pole like structure that had a glowing dot above and stood the length of the spartan's legs.

"This pole is connected to the specific archive where the librarian compiled the digital format of the neural signal within a highly energetic superimposed quantum pair" said the monitor and the four were listening to it. Cortana appeared nearby.

"So should I have to keep my hands above it?" asked Chief.

"Yes. Your neural interface system will immediately receive the signal and you will be able to view everything" replied Cortana. Chief nodded.

"Do it chief so that we might learn what it is" said Linda.

Chief then proceeded to place his palms, each above each pole. Instantly he felt the rush of data into his brain. Then suddenly information surged directly into the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. The next thing he saw was nothing but horrors. There were this loud bass sound with plenty of black figures with red dots, beams of red energy streaming across, incinerating everything in it's path, then loud cry and shriek of pain and suffering. Everything he saw as frames moved at a greater speed that it was impossible even for his spartan mind to keep track of it. His neurons fired like anything to support his brain's processing capabilities but all it gave him was headache. There was only a 30% chance that he had noticed anything in the frames.

Chief's hands started to tighten and he grunted in pain as the images flooded his mind and in next instant, he forcibly removed his hands from the poles and fell down.

"Chief!" yelled Cortana.

"Shit! What happened, brother? Pull up!...Pull up!" said Fred trying to get Chief back on his feet. Fred, Kelly and Linda were trying to get him up.

"Monitor, What just happened!?" asked Kelly loud.

" _He suffered a temporary neural shock. He will recover_ " replied the monitor.

After 5 minutes, Chief slowly got back to his feet and stood extending his arms stretching it to relieve of stress. He opened and closed his eyelids so tight for few times as his vision slowly started to become clear. He was thankful that he were able to move by himself and still felt control over his body. He then saw the others gazing at him with worry even though he can't see their behind the helmet. Cortana was worried too seeing him crippled fora moment.

"What happened Chief? You alright?" asked Kelly. Chief took his time to respond as he was still trying to gather his mind.

"Yeah. Still feel quite dizzy" replied Chief.

"Did you see anything?" asked Kelly. He took a deep breath and remained silent for a moment to gather what he managed to glimpse at. He then spoke in his ever stoic tone.

"What the librarian saw was true. I too saw these big...things, several red dots and there were fire, rage, death and destruction" said Chief, still unable to decipher what he actually saw.

"Also I saw things that are not native to our galaxy. This is indeed extra galactic" said Chief which caught their attention.

" _Is there any hint about what galaxy it was, reclaimer?" asked Radiance._

"No. But I do know that its not milky way, because whatever I saw doesn't match anything we have in our galaxy" replied Chief. Then everyone got their head cleared and clearly came to know what this was all about from the beginning.

"Now it's good that we had verified the evidence, what's next?" asked Fred.

"We'll proceed with this new mission" said Chief. This caused quite a stir in others faces. While confirming the evidences are just a wash up, they need to get practical.

"Chief, We just can't do that. UNSC HIGHCOM would be glad to give us the administrative punishment" said Linda.

"But this is even more important than ourselves" replied Chief.

"Chief, it has nothing to do with our galaxy. Why should we even poke our nose into?" asked Kelly.

"Isn't it our duty Kelly? We spartans are not just some simple killing machines. We just don't think rational, we also differentiate right from wrong. Our duty is to protect humanity, but protecting innocents is even more important" said Chief reasoning with his team. Actually, that was something he fervently believed.

"Chief is right. We are just doing this what we would do if it were our galaxy" said Cortana. Fred, Kelly and Linda shared a brief look and then nodded in approval.

"You know what? For the best or worst, We are always with you, no matter where" said Fred. Chief nodded in acknowledgement.

"Besides, what if we tell the UNSC and they shelf it. That galaxy will die for sure. An opportunity like this doesn't come everyday" said Linda.

"Then it's decided. Radiance, we'll take care of that. But traveling-..." said Chief

" _Traveling another galaxy needs lots of resources, I know reclaimer. Your team will be provided the best to give yourselves an edge in this fight_ " said Radiance.

" _The librarian may not be here or alive, but she will be grateful for this and proves that she were never wrong about the humans_ " said the monitor in it's monotonous voice.

"Whatever" muttered Fred.

" _Fine then, I and your ancilla Cortana were designing a new starship. It will be ready in 3 more days"_ said the monitor. _  
_

"A Star ship? You gotta be kidding me" said Linda-058 shaking her head in disbelief.

"Yes, you would never believe it. It is a prime cruiser, a capital ship once used by ancient humanity" said Cortana excitingly.

( _Prime cruiser: Halo 4 terminals, where a ship projects blue energy to destroy an infected forerunner ship)_

"Ancient humanity had ships? What the hell!" exclaimed Kelly in a low voice.

"They did. I'll tell you about them afterwards" replied Cortana.

" _Until then you can rest in the same place_ " said the monitor.

"In the mean time, why don't you three give your armors? We have planned a lot of upgrades" said Cortana appearing from a nearby terminal and pointing to Chief, Kelly Fred and Linda.

"What upgrades are we talking about?" asked Chief eagerly though he felt that wasn't highly necessary.

"Does the word 'patience' mean anything to you caveman?"smirked Cortana crossing her arms.

The four didn't wish to argue with her, so they removed their armor without the body suit. The sentinels used constraint field to lift and take those armors to the research facility where it would be upgraded.

Then they would spend the next three days exploring further into the city. They saw sentinels flying here and there. They were discussing about forerunner architectures, legacy they left behind. They had some edible fruits native to iridescent for eating. The four felt more active after eating those. They also discussed about ancient wars, their outcomes to pass the time. Though they had everything to live, still they needed to get used to that place.

Meanwhile while they were free, Cortana also explained everything about the empire of ancient humanity and their rise and fall. Chief having already acquired the knowledge was not surprised. But the other three were stunned to hear that humanity was once a rival to forerunners. They also wished that if they had that kind of power during the 30 years war, they would have easily defeated the covenant with minimum casualties. But talking about that now is just only to pass time as the war was already 5 years past them and they had been through every punishment and threats they had to endure and sustain.

...

It had been 3 full days and just as said, Cortana appeared and called them.

"Chief, Get everyone outside, you are gonna love this" Cortana popped from a terminal and said to them.

"Right, Let's go take a look at what they have in store" said Fred.

The four immediately came out of the building and saw the monitor.

" _Reclaimers, it's time you saw your new ship_ " said the monitor and immediately teleported them to the ship building facility located 15 miles from their location. After they reached that place, They saw several constructor sentinels, sentinel assemblers working over a massive ship above them at a certain distance. The size of the ship was eye-popping and jaw dropping for the four.

"That one's big! Like the Infinity" said Fred with his eyes widened. The ship was built with design of the ancient humanity's prime cruiser but slightly modified. The ship had a royal look with no evidence of being human made. Anyone who see that ship definitely thinks that it is an alien vessel yet had that strange human touch. The ship is now in final stages of stocking of supplies. Also they saw a UNSC insignia with a name "IMPERIAL DAWN', named in remembrance of the ship 'forward unto dawn' as it served as the last reminder of how the war was won.

The ship is 5000mts in length, 1000mts in height, 810mts wide. There are two 4-series forward MAC guns in the bow placed at the middle of cross-section that can shoot a 850 ton Tungsten-depleted uranium alloy slug with advanced coolant circuit. The charging capacitor banks are more efficient that it takes less time to recharge for each shot, hence 6 slugs-3 from each can be fired before reload. There are 480 archer missiles, 400 rapier missiles, 4 plasma torpedos with 2 turrets each placed on left and right side of the ship, Pulse laser cannons, HAVOK tactical nuke missiles, Shiva-class missiles, proton fusion mines. In the ship's bow 250mts above the MAC guns is the most powerful weapon - _Matter Disintegration Beam Projector_. This weapon fires a very powerful beam of energy generated through matter-antimatter annihilation, charged and fired at a blinding speed with beam diameter of 30mts. This beam can totally turn even multiple dreadnoughts to dust in the line of fire. When fired in the planets atmosphere, the beam disintegrates the molecular matter present in the atmosphere causing a nuclear chain reaction that will totally destroy everything in a 100mile radius. And at full power, the beam will burn the whole planet or send a gas giant to a complete nova.

"That's some serious fire power we got. But is it really necessary?" asked Fred.

"To fight a force that can wipe out a galaxy? Hell yes!" replied Kelly.

Also the ship has been fitted with _Anti-helium-4_ fusion core for ship's power source coupled with dark plasma reactor for propulsion with one main thruster and 2 secondary thrusters placed in a triangular position. A new slipspace drive which was under research for a long time has been retrofitted in to the ship. This drive uses a powerful forerunner crystal that can warp the slipspace to greater extent such that it can jump with maximum effectiveness of 25000 light years in a day with greater precision though the overheating puts it to shutdown for at least a day. The ship hull is fully made of titanium-A3 with reinforced diamond nano-threads that can superior durability and stiffness. Instead of sharp bends and edges, the hull has curved parts. The energy shields are powerful enough to with stand 2 MAC gun shots and a plasma torpedo shot in succession. Also the ship has stealth systems to mask it from detection. The ship's color is deep blue-black.

The ship has been packed with several sentinel majors, some Super Sentinels, some Sentinel constructors, Assemblers and 3 Retreivers, hangers for 4 SAHARA class prowlers. There are currently 15 'D79H-TC' pelican gun ship with anvil missile pods and 90mm gauss cannon, 10 broadsword and 10 long sword interceptors, 10 scorpion tanks with 120mm heavy explosive gauss rounds and a 70mm machine gun with sabot rounds, 12 M12 FAV warthogs with M343A2 HMG. Also there are 2 huragoks and small forerunner manufacturing unit to produce in ship requirements when needed which are completely controlled by Cortana.

"Alright, we got what we need. But still going without saying a word to at least lord Hood, feels like going AWOL" said Linda.

"Well, Actually I plan to send a package to the HIGHCOM in a secured channel not revealing ours or this facility's position. So we just informed them and at the same time, carried out our progress" said Cortana convincing them.

"Then what are we waiting for? If our armor upgrades are over, why don't we suit up and leave?" asked Chief. Cortana folded her hands and nodded dismissively. The blue team didn't quite understand that gesture.

"what is it?" asked Kelly. The spartans saw something was troubling her.

"Uhh...Radiance, would like to have word with you John, especially you" said Cortana puzzled.

"Me? What does he want from me?" asked Chief. This is when the monitor showed up.

" _Reclaimer, I wanted to tell you something as it is time that you learned"_ said the monitor. The chief stood silent and nodded his head to go ahead. He felt that the whole situation had a catch and his instincts already warned him.

" _It's about your genetics"_ said the monitor.

"My genetics? What about that?" asked Chief. The monitor floated stoically and blinked with it's eye light and then spoke,

" _You managed to interact with the librarian's essence on Requiem, didn't you?_ " asked the monitor.

"Yes I did" replied Chief reminded of his encounter with the librarian and her revelations.

" _Then I don't have to say this but let me explain you once again._ _When_ t _he Librarian seeded humanity, she placed certain imprints that will guide them in their evolution. This was done to have your race reclaim your past glory"_ said the monitor.

"You are talking about the ancient human empire aren't you? Cortana explained that part" said Fred.

" _Yes, they were a great empire, a great rivals to my makers. But, they carried unexplained genetic traits, that our makers were never able to understand or decipher"_ said the monitor.

"After the human-forerunner wars, your kind devolved us to tribes. That's what happened!" said Kelly hiding the rudeness in her voice. Of course, she didn't like what the forerunners did to humans. Humans tried to help everyone and was left in a worst fate for doing that.

" _For which my makers dearly paid by losing to the galaxy's worst enemy. But that wasn't my point"_ said the monitor.

"So what was it about?" asked Chief.

" _After your race had been devolved, the librarian against the wishes of her husband and the warrior servants in general, guided humanity on earth by placing imprints on their genes so they would gradually reach the sophistication. The results of that work were more than what she expected"_ said the monitor.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Linda.

" _What should have taken several thousand years, it took only a few centuries for them to reach significant level of advancement than they should have"_ said the monitor.

"And?" asked Cortana.

" _This was when the librarian extensively studied the human genome to unlock it's secrets. Her studies revealed that your race had the ability to carry out a 100,000 year advancement in just about 10000 years, 1/10th of the required optimum time and at one point, you could have surpassed my creators in terms of evolution and technological achievements. But still couldn't find the key to your genetic superiority. The Librarian even believed that the key to forerunner's true ascendancy lied actually within the humanity's hidden potential on contrary to what the other forerunners believed"_ said the monitor. This was a motivating point for them. They felt a small sense of pride in what humanity were truly capable of.

"That's all good, but why do you share it now?" asked Chief.

" _My makers were already on war with the flood. But the Librarian secretly initiated a program. She isolated some human seeds and placed several forerunner genetic markers who would eventually be termed as the 'Reclaimers', some of which I know as of now. Their most profound ability is the innate familiarity with the forerunner technology_ " said the monitor. The blue team found it weird but Cortana managed to get what the monitor was referring to.

"That makes sense. The very first time when me and Chief were on halo-04, Chief somehow used a holo-panel which had confusing patterns, without any previous knowledge" said Cortana who now realized what these imprints could do.

"And we were able to use like wise on Onyx" replied Kelly, who was in the spartan fire team that assisted Halsey, Mendez on Onyx to prevent covenant access to the shield world.

"Do you know who are all been place with these 'imprints'?" asked Fred.

" _More._ _But I don't remember much, Because of the compartmentalization. Each has it's specified purpose. But at present, I see you four carry certain imprints that we placed long back_ "replied the monitor. The blue team were sharing confused looks among themselves.

"Us?" asked Chief tensed.

" _Yes, Allow me to scan your gene marks..."_ said the monitor doing a rough scan on their gene profile. There was a faint humming sound from the monitor and then it spoke after finishing it's work.

 _"Hm, intriguing"_ replied monitor.

"What is it?" asked Cortana.

"Y _ou three carry the gene imprints of the 'prefects', the third most powerful forerunner warrior servants, which eventually became what you are now, the 'Spartans', as your ancilla_ named it" said the monitor to Fred, Kelly and Linda, then turning to the Chief _, "But this reclaimer-..."_ the monitor stopped talking.

"What about him?" asked Fred everyone turning to look at the chief. Chief didn't understand what he said. But what ever the monitor said so far were things he knew.

 _"This reclaimer's DNA carries a different imprint, more resonating and intimidating"_ said the monitor.

"Can you tell what it is exactly?" asked Cortana. Chief and the blue team were blinking at this new information. The monitor glanced at the five and then spoke.

 _"Prometheans are the most powerful of the forerunner warrior servants as their mutations grant them superior abilities"_ said the monitor then tuning to face the Chief, " _This one is imprinted with one of the most powerful promethean. His DNA carries as of now, 15% of the promethean gene markers after several generations of adulteration_ " said the monitor. Other turned to look at Chief while he was looking down trying to figure out what it was exactly. He knew the prometheans were forerunner elite soldiers and that the mechanical prometheans were conscripts of biological beings like their own and ancient humanity.

"Well, can you tell us which promethean soldier was imprinted upon Chief's DNA, exactly?" asked Kelly. The monitor took time to respond kept on blinking its 'eye' for few seconds,

" _No, I don't. While I took part in the work along with the librarian in imprinting humanity, I don't know what exactly she did. But I have detected a powerful genetic signal in him that only represents a promethean and if it's a separate secret work carried out by the librarian or not? That I do not know"_ said the monitor. Chief was wondering what this was all about.

"While we know a lot about forerunner history and the different rates that served their government, This is quite unexpected" said Linda. This is when the Chief spoke,

"So what happens now?" asked Chief.

" _The promethean bio-markers are intact that it can be fully separated from your DNA base pairs and then recombine it again_ " said the monitor

"Which means?" asked Chief.

" _Which means, you are capable of augmenting yourself to become-...surprisingly a full rate promethean!?"_ said the monitor which itself sounded confused as there were things that even it didn't know. This was totally absurd, Chief turning into a promethean? That's insane. Chief was silent, more precisely stunned. Through Cortana, they learned about forerunner prometheans. They are fierce and battle hardened like the spartans with the only difference, the prometheans are superior as evidences suggest. One example was the Didact, who was nothing but a menace.

"What will happen to John in this procedure?" asked Cortana.

"W _ith the already present abilities, after promethean augmentations, this reclaimer will possess increased muscular fibers and strength. Also superior agility, endurance, reflex, stamina, cognitive functions, some change in facial features and also there won't any change in his personality. But it the reclaimer's choice_ " said the monitor.

"This is nice. Perhaps we need every edge to succeed in this mission" said Fred.

"Chief, I suggest you do this. You need to stay strong to fight this war" said Cortana

Everyone was looking at Chief expecting a reply. John went on to think of Halsey's early spartan program. The augmentation managed to strip some part of humanity from him which made others to see spartans as simple killing machines. He worried about the dangers of the lingering humanity in him being drained completely and becoming a pure machines. But on the contrary, he knew how spartans being few in numbers turned the tide of human-covenant war. Doctor Halsey's spartan - II program might be viewed as atrocious, but John saw how the humans could be more than what they are. After all, staying strong helps him prevent the loss of those under his command like losing Sam, Arthur, Solomon etc., So he decided to take this offer.

"Chief?" called Linda.

"I will do this" replied chief clearing his mind.

" _Then it's decided. I will transport you to the bio-augmentation facility_ "

"Meanwhile, why don't you three look at the upgrades I've done for your armor" said Cortana to Kelly, Linda, Fred. The three nodded their heads and followed her.

John and radiance then teleported to the facility. After reaching, John was asked to remove his body suit. He did exactly what the monitor told him to do. Radiance then obtained a complete profile of John's DNA. After few minutes,

" _Good news, The promethean strains in your gene are far superior than I anticipated. It means, after you augment into a promethean, Your strength may increase to unprecedented levels. Though-..._ " the monitor stumbled at the end. John could see the disturbed monitor.

"Something's troubling you?" asked John. The monitor was silent for a moment and then spoke.

" _Yes, The librarian never had me know that a human was imprinted with a full rate promethean. Actually, that imprint requires permission from the highest level of authority. I am sorry that I cannot give more information on that_ " said the monitor in a slightly distressed tone.

"No problem. Maybe I can figure it out myself one day" replied John to which the monitor nodded by doing a couple spin. Then proceeded to work besides a new holo-terminal.

" _In this process, first you will undergo biological augumentation. The promethean markers must be isolated and then must be recombined to take full effect. Then promethean nano-bots will be sent to your brain's cortices in the 4 lobes that will enhance your neuro tranceiver system which yields faster processing speed, enhanced reflex and efficient interface with your combat skin_..." explained the monitor.

Then John entered a room where augmentations for the forerunners are done. There he lied on a floating stretcher. Then the monitor started the systems and several sentinel arms held their position around the chief carrying 3 different types of serum.

The monitor started the procedure and one arm injected the first serum that isolates promethean bio markers. At first, the process was smooth, but slowly, John started to shake violently, grunting in pain as it was a totally foreign material. The nearby display shows his heartbeat rising very high, with increased body temperature. Then the second serum was injected. This causes the bio-markers to assemble as a lengthy strand. This time john's body started to give some moving yellow-orange light from toe to head, still shaking in pain. This process was suitable for only forerunners. But his high tolerance to pain held him together. The final serum was injected which recombined the lengthy promethean strand with his actual human DNA strand along the vertical axis. This is when John became bigger than before with more muscular fibers. The final serum did its job successfully and John slowly stopped shaking. Monitor saw his vitals returning to normal. There are no skin tone changes in his outer appearance. He looked the same as before.

His eye's iris color turned to yellow-orange color. It is not bright like a demon, but good enough to be observed by anyone even in bright day light. The monitor then sent promethean nano-crawlers to his brain that went to their respective positions. Monitor saw they have have successfully interfaced with his brain.

...

After one hour, John woke up feeling strange, new, more powerful. Everything he see and feel are immediately recognized and react to it because of his enhanced cognitive abilities thanks to the nanobots. His body has bulked up.

" _How do you feel_?" asked the monitor

"Strange, but a lot powerful" replied Chief who flexed his body and his fingers relieve the stress. He felt as if he died and was resurrected with his original identity gone forever yet feeling same as the old John-117.

" _The augmentation was a success. Also I have never seen anyone with this much tolerance to pain. Actually, my makers needed to get to the proper age to the proper age in order for this procedure to be successful_ "

"I've been through this a lot before. So where is my armor?" asked Chief .

" _We have made a new combat skin for you based on your previous armor. Come with me_ " said the monitor. John followed it to a combat skin research chamber. There John saw his new armor.

The armor was matte black colored. It was an upgraded **mark VI** ( ** _Halo 4)_** , but the design is totally different. Instead of separate parts that covers each part of the body, this armor appeared whole from neck portion to toes, comprised of several fragments internally locked, which gets unlocked by protruding out of the body. After then, the fragments are removed by any refit drones. This mark VI was designed to imitate a forerunner class 12 combat skin, like having a continuous fluid surface for smooth aerodynamic and hydrodynamic flows, having curved and bent edges almost forerunner like appearance yet the same familiar MJOLNIR outline that he recognized and approved it.

" _This will be your new combat skin reclaimer. It's same as the old one but follows forerunner design and idealization and is ranked class 12 in our armor classification system. You will be wearing a new nano synthetic bodysuit. This armor has many capabilities. The armor parts are made of hard forerunner composites that can withstand both the impact of solid projectiles and directed plasma bolts to a greater degree. The energy shields are highly durable that it can withstand two grenade explosions before depleting. The shields are EMP hardened_ "

" _Also it has enhanced force multiplication circuits for more speed and strength with even less reaction time. A prototype hydro static gel that can absorb even impact from orbital drop, though you will suffer minor sprains which will need medication_..."

" _A miniature slipspace pod is retrofitted in the armor for storage of additional ammo and weapons in the respective slipspace coordinates. The coordinates could be sent directly by your mind and keep your hand palm open, A mini slipspace portal will open and the respective stored item will be thrown to your palm. Those information you can get from the visor display_ "

" _Then there is an oxygen recycling system that helps you breathe in vacuum or underwater for prolonged time. Also the suit has nanite injectors, a replacement for the bio-foam which heals your wound by replacing lost cells_ "

" _The suit has inbuilt teleportation grid that helps you to teleport yourself between your ship and the surface. Also there is an artificial gravity thrusters that helps you in aerial maneuvering. You can holster your weapons on the upper back part just as usual_ "

" _Also in your right hand palm, there is a circular shutter that can be opened to use a holographic projector for your ancilla Cortana to project herself. In your left forearm, you can open a mini holo-computer for hacking, remote control and interface with other electronics_..."

" _Your helmet has an AI Data chip port on the back just like the original and software installed helps in displaying IFF, battleground data, information on any object you pickup with thorough scan. The Visor Displays Shield bar, suit integrity bar, type of weapons and ammo carried, motion tracker, targeting sensor. Also it has advanced optics that helps you zoom in with cross-hairs depending on the weapon being held on hand. You have Thermal vision, X-ray vision and Promethean vision. You can use a short range radar pulse to detect movements to a certain distance_..."

" _Your suit has a shockwave generator that can be released when you leap and punch the ground with a great force. The shockwave creates tremor in a 5 metre radius. Also the suit has force field projector that can be summoned at will by raising your left or right or both hands. This force field looks more like bubble shield having glass like appearance. This field can make the incoming projectiles to ricochet and even deflect explosions. The shield profile varies with the position of your hands. In your right forearm, in the dorsal wrist, you can summon a plasma energy sword with a retrofitted handle. During activation, the handle comes out and the sword appears. During de-activation, the handle goes inside the forearm armor part and get closed. So you don't have to carry energy sword separately. There is an active camouflage in built with effective heat sink which can cloak you for even 20 minutes_..."

" _At last...the power source...The suit is powered by Inertial confined fusion reactor using laser cooled tritium crystal fuel. Also it has advanced cooling system to regulate the temperature effectively. The suit has lockdown mechanism that is voice activated_ "

Master chief listened to the monitor who is explaining each and everything about the armor. He decided to wear the new body suit and the new armor. The Chief was helped by the drones in wearing the bodysuit and stood nearby. The armor parts started to assemble over John and finally finished with the helmet. The visor started to display all the suit parameters and BIOS diagnostics.

The Chief looked slightly bulky in armor than before and stood 7'3" tall. Now John is a Human Promethean in a new hybrid armor.

...

He then proceeded to walk out of the facility and went to check on his team. In the mean time, Cortana has upgraded their armor with more enhanced capabilities including a regenerative energy shield. They felt different with new upgrades and are easy to control. They all saw Master chief and the monitor walking towards them. They all were amazed to see john in a dazzling new armor.

"John, that looks familiar but way too cool!" said Fred.

"Looks like you all got your upgrades too" replied Chief.

"Yeah, Cortana strengthened the existing mods and also put on some new tech that are actually awesome" replied Kelly to which he nodded.

"So, what now?" asked Chief with a sigh.

"Now we got everything, let's take the ship and then we'll head to that galaxy. It's time I got inside your head John" Cortana said. John took the AI Data core chip and placed it inside at the back of his helmet. He then felt the familiar chillness in his brain when she gets inside.

But Cortana was instantly fed with the information of John's bio readings and amazed.

"Wow! Whatever the augmentations are, it turned you into something else" Cortana talked directly to his mind.

"Afraid I'll get rampant?" thought Chief with a smirk

"You are no better at it than me caveman" mocked Cortana.

"Thank you radiance, for your help. We'll do our best in saving that galaxy with all these resources you gave us" said Chief while others nodded in approval

"Is there any other information regarding this new mission?" asked Cortana from the chief's helmet.

" _No, my knowledge is limited. Maybe the knowledge is vast enough to even make me, being the most stable construct to go rampant, so that the librarian might have concealed much of the information from me. I have given everything reclaimer. It is up to you to do the rest_ " said the monitor.

" _And one more thing, Your ancilla has stored a pre-recorded message with her avatar about everything that could help your people in aiding you in the future when they deem it necessary. When you reach the other galaxy. I will send the message in a secured channel Cortana gave me that will connect to their fleet command, good luck reclaimers!_ " said the monitor and disappeared using the teleportation.

Chief entered the coordinates in his mini holo-computer that teleported them to the ship. They all appeared in the prowler hanger where they saw a SAHARA class heavy prowler. They saw sentinels moving here and there. The hangers have a hard light shield with metallic doors. The hard light respond to IFF. Chief immediately asked Cortana for waypoint to the ship's bridge. A HUD showed the direction and they finally reached the bridge. The bridge had several terminals for different personnels to serve their purpose. Chief inserted the AI data chip into the nearby holo-pedestal. Her avatar emerged in the pedestal. Chief simply stood at the bridge to observe things.

"Chief, This ship is a marvel! Though I miss the original dawn and the pillar of autumn, still this is fantastic" said Cortana.

"So, let's go to this place, see through this crazy mission" said Linda.

"Roger that" said Chief and then turned to is team.

"Kelly, check the armory and see what we have in stock"

"Aye aye chief" and Kelly went away.

"Linda, take care of the sensors and Fred, check on the weapons"

"On it chief" said the both and they took their respective terminals.

"So Cortana, Let's take her for a ride"

"Oh! It's gonna be exciting! Running systems diagnostics"

"Weapon systems online" said Fred

"Comms and sensors are reading good" said Linda

A holographic display shows up in front of chief. He accessed it to check all the analyses.

"Cortana, if we are good, engage the thrusters" said Chief to which Cortana nodded.

"Engine systems online" said Cortana, as she fired the engine and engaged the thrusters. The ship started to slowly ascend toward the space. After reaching the space, the ship moved forward away from Iridescent's gravity field.

"Cortana, get me a map and show where we are headed to" asked Chief

A galactic map appeared before him and zoomed in to the particular point in the lagoon nebula where the beacon originated. That point was marked in the map.

"Cortana, how's the slipspace engine?"

"Slipspace drive is 100% functional and ready to be used to our current destination"

"Go ahead"

Cortana smiled at that and entered the coordinates that monitor gave and engaged the slipspace drives. A bluish white portal opened in front of the ship. As the ship entered it, the portal immediately closed. They then exited the slipspace in the said coordinates in a minute crossing 4000 lightyears, thanks to the forerunner crystal. They all saw a big ring like object with a blackhole contained within. They were amazed with the size and were wondering what technology would have been used to do this. As they neared the ring to investigate, The blackhole's gravitational force started to pull the ship forcibly towards it.

"Team, better hold on to something, raising shields! said Cortana in a loud voice.

When the ship touched the blackhole. The whole ship felt powerful vibrations.

"Chief! this is Kelly from the armory. Things are shaky here"

"Kelly, we are getting pulled by a black hole. Hold on to something" said Chief.

"Ah great!" said Kelly with a gruff tone and grabbed something rigid to hold on to herself.

After certain minutes, they exited the blackhole out of the same ring they entered. It was a wild ride for them. The ship had no outer hull damage as the shields protected them.

"Ship integrity at 100%. Sentinels are reporting no damage. We are fine chief" said Linda to which chief nodded.

"Cortana?" called Chief

"John, I'm picking up whispers, I think we have come where we had to" said Cortana, but her face already frowned at something. She did something before John asked her to do exactly. Several bytes of information scrolled through her digital realm. She was flooded with data about the place they had reached and that's what made her feel upset.

"Bring up the star chart of this new galaxy. What can you tell?"

"What the Hell!? This can't be!" said Cortana shocked, bringing up the holo display of the galaxy in front of chief.

"What is it? Wait, isn't that familiar?" asked Chief puzzled after seeing the galaxy in display.

"We are in the Milky way galaxy, John"

"What?...uh...How?" asked Chief in confusion.

"And for a check, I ran a scan in the star systems. Only some have positive interpolation. There is no planet called Reach and I have no trace of any signal from UNSC controlled space" said Cortana so confused.

"Chief, Sensors are picking up a small fleet headed our way of unknown ship design and origin" said Linda.

Cortana immediately projected it in a holo display in front of chief. It showed ships with thin elliptical body and 'T'shaped extensions and curved edges from it. They wondered what kind of ships they were. There were totally 7 ships with size equivalent to a cruiser.

"Something's really must have gone wrong, Cortana" said the Chief to which she just stared him.

 **A/N: From here their journey to ME universe starts.**

 **Don't forget to review.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I get it that many of you are disappointed with the idea of chief being a promethean. Listen, The chief is still human and is not an immortal god. In this story, Chief will suffer near death 3 times even with the augmentations. It has only given him additional strength to face his toughest enemy in the future. Of course, chief is even more powerful now. But there are more to come before you could jump into conclusion. I hope you all understand.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect.  
**

 **Chapter 3: Breach in to Unknown.**

 **UNSC HIGHCOM facility Bravo-6**

 **July 29, 2557**

Fleet admiral hood was in an heated argument with the other members in the HIGHCOM facility regarding the blue team's mission. They were questioning him with John-117's personal mindset after Requiem mission.

"Admiral Hood, Do you realize the gravity of the situation? I mean, It was only 4 days with the New Phoenix incident before you could send the Master chief and his team on another mission. They haven't reported for 3 days which makes us assume either they are MIA or gone AWOL" asked admiral Osman.

"With all due respect Admiral Osman, You and I both know that this isn't about the Master chief. Black team haven't reported back from their mission on Ivanoff station. So as protocol suggests, I sent another team to investigate it" replied admiral Hood justifying the situation. The other members seemed not satisfied who's to question the highest military authority figure.

Suddenly their argument was stopped with the arrival a HIGHCOM's Communication's officer

"Admiral Hood! Sir, Naval special warfare command just received a transmission from a highly secured sub-space channel" said the officer

"Patch it through officer!" ordered the admiral

"Yes sir!" said the officer and went away to patch the message.

"Admirals, something tells me, we are all gonna get some answers" said Hood and he opened up the Holo table. The room went dark. The next thing everyone saw was totally unbelievable.

"Admirals" greeted the projected holo-avatar of a blue young girl.

"Cortana!?" exclaimed hood in surprise. Everyone in the room where sharing surprising and shocking looks to each other. They realized it was her pre-recorded message.

"This is UNSC AI CTN 0452-9 or Cortana. Admirals, You were probably wondering what happened to the blue team who were on mission to the Ivanoff station. The mission was successful. Team black was Killed In Action by the didact who returned to the gamma-halo after surviving the fall into slipspace above earth. Blue team managed to dispose the didact, But still he's only contained by the composer. As for me, After the destruction of mantle's approach, i was transported to an unknown facility where i was cured of my rampancy. Also blue team was teleported to the same facility and are now on a new mission...Now i'm with them..." then she went on to explain everything about the new mission, about the new galaxy, new threat and the mysterious artifact and its coordinates in the lagoon nebula though she never gave the location of Iridescent.

After the end of transmission, the room went bright again. Everyone were totally dumb strucked with the message. It's still hard for them to believe that cortana's active and been cured of her problem. And even more frustrating information is that the blue team is on a new mission to a new galaxy which pushed their belief beyond.

"Admiral hood?...In my service, I've never heard this kind of crap before!...And don't tell me you are going to buy this" said General hogan in pressing tone.

"Listen, I admit that it's even hard for me to believe this. But, Cortana has been our most reliable asset for the past 8 years. She had never been wrong with information" replied hood though confused, still having a sense of truth in the message.

"Also, she gave us coordinates for this artifact in the lagoon nebula...Everything will come to light when we scan that sector" added admiral hood. There were still confusion in everyone's faces. They still can't figure something out of this.

 **UNSC Infinity, Earth**

 **July 29, 2557**

Spartan-III commander Carter-A259 has assumed the role of instructor of the spartan-IV fireteams. He was standing in the combat simulation training deck with the fresh cadets of the fire team majestic and fire team crimson. Carter was giving them training on time based missions, where one involves carter as a target which majestic have to capture in a given time. For Crimson, they were tasked with saving a human delegate rigged with explosives. Majestic and crimson realized that they had a lot to learn from the veteran spartan who was the famous noble team leader and a survivor of the fall of reach.

Carter, who's now 37 still has the same durability when he was the noble team's leader. In the final moments of reach's fall, Carter used a pelican to ram into the covenant scarab to buy time for his mates to deliver the package to 'pillar of autumn'. But when the pelican was about to crash, he immediately jumped off the pelican and initiated the armor lock down in his MJOLNIR mark V. After the impact to the ground with great force, even with the hydrostatic gel' viscosity holding up, he suffered multiple fractures. Then he was immediately picked off by Jun-A266 in a pelican before escorting from SWORD base to CASTLE base where Carter was under medication for 8 months. Then he and Jun-A266 aided in a mission to retrieve Jorge-052 drifting in the interstellar space of the Lambda-Aurigae system who was thought to be killed by a makeshift slipspace bomb.

Commander Sarah palmer was standing all the time when Carter was giving them training. After finishing it, Palmer went near carter to talk to him.

"So commander? How do you think are they doing?"

"Well, a bit sloppy, but with few more lessons, they will be better at least. They are bit careful in not getting their asses blown up" said Carter with a smirk to which Palmer raised her eyebrows with a smile.

"Huh, How's the big guy?" asked Palmer about Jorge.

"Well, you know how hard it is to get back to normal after being snapped up with events like that. But still going for mission after missions ease is mind off, at least for him" replied Carter.

Suddenly Carter and Palmer were called on by Captain Lasky in their comm requesting their presence on the bridge.

"You go. I'll bring up Jorge and see you on the bridge" said carter to which Palmer nodded her head and went off. Carter went to jorge's room

"Hey Jorge, Captain's calling us to the bridge, let's go"

"Alright, Give me a second. Let's go" said Jorge and they both set off to the bridge.

 **Infinity's Bridge...**

Captain Lasky was informed by the AI Roland that they are just getting an incoming transmission from the covenant separatist fleet. Carter, Jorge and Palmer arrived at the bridge.

"Ah, Good to see you three here" said Captain Lasky.

"What's this about captain?" asked Carter.

"Well, I'll tell you...Roland?"

"Opening the channel captain" said Roland. Then in the holo table, they saw a holographic figure of the 'Arbiter". The three were just wondering what could be the situation for the arbiter to call them.

"Greetings Captain Lasky" said the Arbiter.

"Arbiter, I take it that it's very much important for someone like you to contact us"

"Indeed, I'll get to the point captain. On our search for the covenant remnants bases, we came across a strange artifact of immense size in the lagoon nebula at 0.01 light years away from a blue giant. These are the coordinates of its location"

"What's so special about that?" asked Capt. Lasky.

"We cross referenced with the previous forerunner artifacts that had been found till this date. There is no match"

This information was so alarming as there cannot be an 'Artifact' without forerunner's involvement.

"Is there any special reason for this information being shared with us" asked Capt. Lasky

"Yes, This is what concerns me. We managed to trace a beacon that ends with the artifact and gets vanished. The signal matches your UNSC standard comm frequency..."

This sent shock into everyone's faces.

"Wait! How's that even possible? We never sent any UNSC ships in to the lagoon nebula...No...This can't be right!..." said Lasky in a tempting voice.

"I'm sorry captain. Someone has been pulled in" said the Arbiter.

"What's the nature of the Artifact?" asked Palmer with confusion.

"The Artifact is a black hole" replied Arbiter

"What!?" asked Jorge deciding to speak for the first time. He remembered how the make shift slipspace bomb he detonated on reach sent him to an unknown space with the damaged covenant ship or what remained of it.

"But it's contained in a ring like object. There is no energy decay in the black hole, So its not a result of a supernova. Someone had built this ring with artificially created black hole and stabilize it. This can only mean one thing. It's traversable portal and one of your people had gone into that" replied the Arbiter and then showed an image of that Artifact in the holo-table. Everyone were puzzled as to what kind of artifact was that. And also were in doubt how could an UNSC ship passed through.

"Captain, That black hole doesn't seem to give out Hawking Radiation. Arbiter might be right. It could have been artificially created and contained...But if it's not forerunners, then who built it!? asked the AI Roland in a confused tone.

"Alright Arbiter, see if you can find anything. I'll contact you afterwards"finished Lasky and end the chatter.

"Sir, HIGHCOM's hailing us. It's Admiral Hood" said Roland suddenly to Lasky.

"put that up, Roland"

"Opening the channel, captain" said Roland showing the display of Lord Hood.

"Admiral Hood!" saluted Lasky.

"Captain! We've got an Emergency. We received a transmission an hour ago from NAV SPEC WAR COM. You won't believe this. It was our UNSC AI Cortana" said Lord Hood

This made everyone terrified as everyone knew her story. Lasky, who hadn't even recovered from what arbiter was filled in immediately with another shocking message. Then hood sent the same transmission of Cortana to Lasky that he received.

"I couldn't believe Cortana's still alive" said Roland to which everyone glanced at him.

The Cortana's prerecorded message told everything that it told the HIGHCOM. To everyone's surprise it's the same thing that Arbiter told them moments ago.

"Captain! This is getting weird, but we have the coordinates for that artifact" said Hood and this time Carter chose to speak.

"Admiral, We just received a word from covenant separatist fleet moments ago. Arbiter said that their fleet had found the same artifact in the lagoon nebula and also manged to trace a faint signal of the UNSC ship"

"Then consider yourself lucky. This artifact is a portal and the blue team managed to get a ship inside it to god knows where. Captain, I'm assigning the newly formed eighth fleet under your de facto command to look into this. Infinity will be the flagship with 3 Autumn class cruisers, 5 Strident frigates. Join the fleet nearby mars. Then you are to rendezvous with the separatists fleet near by the artifact"

"Sir, Does the Arbiter knew of our plan?"

"First he talked to me before he contacted you. So before calling you, I've briefed Arbiter of our plan. He'll assist you with 2 CAS carrier and 4 CCS cruiser from their fleet of Retribution, including his ship ' _Shadow of intent'_. So he's waiting for your fleet near by the artifact. And be on your guard. If cortana's information is true, then just assume this new galaxy has got a lot of surprises with it. Find the Chief and his team and aid them in anyway possible and bring them back home" ordered Hood

"Yes sir!"saluted Lasky and cut the transmission.

"This is gonna be one hell of a ride" thought Lasky with a sigh.

"Captain, what are we gonna do?" asked Palmer.

"We go with the plan. You three better get geared up" said Lasky. Carter and Jorge left the bridge.

"Tom, what about Dr. Halsey? Shouldn't we tell her?" asked Palmer.

"She's now deemed as war criminal and there's nothing she can do"

"Indeed she is, but this one involves the Chief and his AI Cortana. Also she's the biggest expert we have on these techs and artifacts at our door. She could be useful in understanding what's on stake in this new place we're going" reasoned Palmer.

Lasky was hesitant, but he knew, that's the truth. So he made the hard decision on bringing the doctor with them.

Roland, I need a line with Admiral hood" ordered Lasky and the AI immediately brought a line with Admiral hood. His holographic figure appearing in the projector.

"Captain, What is it?"

"Sir, I have a request for you. We need doctor Halsey in our crew" said Lasky keeping his face slightly frowned.

"Are you aware of what you are asking, captain?" asked Hood with seriousness.

"Yes sir. We are heading into the unknown. Without an expert in advanced technological artifacts or anything strange we come across, we wont last long" finished Lasky.

Lord Hood knows that Lasky speaks the absolute fact. But also he knew that a soldier like him playing politics is gonna be like rotting in hell. Halsey was deemed as war criminal because of her immoral acts in the past and that's biting her ass now. But he also need to convince the ONI into releasing her to help Lasky in his mission.

"I'll see what i can do captain"

"Thank you sir" with that, Lasky cut the line.

"Roland, open a ship wide broadcasting channel. It's time we tell the crew what's happening"

"Aye aye captain"

"ATTENTION EVERYONE! This is captain Lasky. I advice all personnel to be in your respective wards. All Combat units are suppose to be in their respective battle stations. It's an emergency. Infinity's about to join the eighth fleet near Mars and then will rendezvous with the separatists fleet in the lagoon nebula. We are on a mission to an unknown location. So everyone be on your guard. Lasky out" finished the captain. Everyone started to talk among themselves after hearing this.

"Prep the spartan fireteams" said Lasky

"Alright" saluted Palmer and left the bridge.

"Doctor Glassman? How are the engines and power systems holding up?"

"Well output at nominal level, thrusters are active"

"Sir, Admiral Hood's on the line" said Roland.

"Patch him through" with that admiral hood once again appeared in the projector.

"Captain, I convinced the ONI into releasing Halsey. I had to do a lot of dirty play to get this done. She's is en route to Infinity in a pelican drop ship. I've done my part, It's time to do yours" Said Hood.

"Yes sir and thank you" finished Lasky ending the transmission.

"Roland, take control of the bridge. I'm getting to the hanger to greet our guest"

"Aye aye sir"

Lasky then headed to the transportation deck where a pelican dropship just entered the ship's hanger door. The door slid opened and out came a moderately old woman in a labcoat with her hand's cuffed with two UNSC marines.

"Doctor Halsey, glad to have you aboard" greeted Lasky.

"If you are really glad, ask the marines to un-cuff me" Lasky raised his eye brow at that and asked the marines to un-cuff her. After that, the marines took the drop ship and exited the ship through the hanger bay doors.

"So, what does the captain of the very ship i designed want's with me?" asked Halsey with a smirk, but Lasky was not amused.

"We are on a mission that may need your expertise. I'll brief you later"

"I need a place to stay" said Halsey almost sounding like an order. Lasky nodded to this and took her to a personal quarters and then he left for the bridge.

"Roland, set a course to mars"

"Aye Aye sir. Initiating slipspace rupture" said the AI and the infinity entered Slipspace and vanished.

 **Shadow of Intent, Lagoon nebula.**

 **"** Shipmaster R'tas! What is the fleet position?" asked Arbiter

"We are holding ourselves exactly 100,000 Kms away from the artifact" replied R'tas vadum

"What about the eighth fleet Admiral hood told us about?"

"After their fleet regroup at mars, in 36 hours they will reach our position"

"Then we will wait for them"

"R'tas? Where is Usze and N'tho?" asked Arbiter

"Usze is aboard clarity of faith and N'tho sraom is in sacred promise...Why do you ask?" asked R'tas

"Just curious. Both did a great job during the schism. If this new place we are going turns out to be challenging, we can see how far they strive there" said the Arbiter

"Maybe" replied R'tas with a nod

"If this artifact is not forerunner, then who do you think would have built this?" asked R'tas

"We will know when we enter it. Admiral Hood gave us the transmission sent by their construct. The spartan, his construct and his old friends managed to get a ship and traveled through the portal...When we do that...we will know what we are up to" replied the arbiter.

"Yes. They mentioned a different galaxy, that is strange" said R'tas to which Arbiter nodded

"Dont get me wrong Arbiter. Wont the UNSC take care of this themselves. Why should we have to interfere? We are on a mission to sabotage the loyalist bases" said R'tas

"Indeed R'tas. But this is significant discovery, something not of forerunners. it would be ignorant, not looking into it" replied Arbiter to which R'tas simply looked at him and then turned back.

 **Meanwhile in Mars...**

UNSC Infinity exited slipspace into the 2nd lagrangian point of mars where they saw 3 Autumn class cruisers and 5 Strident frigates.

"Sir, We have reached the fleet" siad Roland

"Open a broadcasting channel" said Lasky and Roland did exactly

"ATTENTION ALL SHIPS! This is Captain Thomas Lasky of The UNSC Infinity and the commander of the eighth fleet. I hope you have been briefed of the mission...We are en route to the seperatists fleet's position in the respective co-ordinates. Keep all the battle stations ready in case if things go south" finished Lasky. All the captains of the ships acknowledged.

"Alright Roland, send the coordinates to the other ships NAV computers and let's all vanish" ordered Lasky to which Roland obliged. Then they all entered slipspace and vanished. From mars, it will take 36 hrs for them to reach the location.

Halsey was hearing all this and wondered what that fuss was all about. This is when Lasky entered her quarters and saw her using a data pad to check the ship's systems. Then she started speaking.

"Captain, what's this all about?" asked Halsey straight forward.

"Doctor, Admiral hood received a transmission from an unknown source, but from a highly known party. Roland, play the transmission" said Lasky. Then roland activated a near by holo projector. The next thing thing halsey saw toppled her mind.

"What the hell!? Cortana already crossed the operational life span. She shouldn't exist" Halsey shockingly thought. Meanwhile she listened to everything that Cortana said. She stood immediately and started walking restlessly in the room in disbelief.

"John's alive and Cortana's been cured in a forerunner facility!? What's with this new galaxy and this artifact? Why didn't anyone let me know this!? asked Halsey furiously

"It's only been 4 days since New phoenix. And then we got popped up with this tranmission. Whatever it is, we are gonna investigate"

"Are you sure that portal is not of forerunner origins?"

"Sanghelli seperatists ships have a sensor to trace out artifacts of forerunner origin. This portal is definitely not forerunner"

"Then we won't get answers until we get there" said Halsey having a lot of questions her mind. Lasky then nodded and left for the bridge. Halsey was studying a lot about the recent news in her data pad.

The whole eighth fleet spent the 36hrs in the slipspace and finally reached the respective coordinates exiting the slipspace. They finally got to see the sanghelli ships waiting for them. Halsey got to the bridge and she and everyone saw a giant ring with a blackhole inside it.

"My god! Look at the size" said Halsey staring at it having a lot thoughts. The captains of the other ships reported their presence to Lasky.

 **Sanghelli Shadow of intent.**

"Arbiter, We are detecting multiple slipspace ruptures 5,000kms from our position. It's the eighth fleet"

"Wait, they are hailing us"

"Put them through"

 **UNSC Infinity**

"Roland, establish contact with the Arbiter"

"Yes captain" Roland opened up a channel. Arbiter's holo figure appeared in the holo-table.

"Captain Lasky, Finally you have arrived" greeted Arbiter.

"Good to see you Arbiter. The mission is a go for the eighth fleet. What's your status?"

"We have 2 CAS carrier and 4 CCS cruisers powered up in position to enter the portal"

"Alright...Let's have a 50kms gap between our fleet. You take your ships and enter the portal first. We'll follow you in the gap"

"Sound plan. We are beginning our approach. Good luck captain"

"You too Arbiter. Lasky out" finished Lasky and ended the transmission.

The eighth fleet held their position 50kms from the sanghelli fleet and started moving towards the portal.

"You really want to get inside that?" asked Halsey raising the eyebrow with doubt.

"I take Cortana's word for this. She and chief has already helped us back on Requiem" said Lasky.

"It's better if you all hold on to something. This ride is about to get choppy" said Roland.

Halsey was quite happy with Lasky trusting someone whom she cared a lot. As they stood and watched, The covenant fleet vanished in to the black hole with the eighth fleet entering the gravity field. They felt sudden acceleration. Ships started to vibrate a lot. Then the last of the ships vanished in to the artifact and the vibration stopped.

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	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect.**

 **Chapter 4: First Contact**

 **Aethena nebula, 4AU away from thessia.**

The asari fourth fleet which consists of 7 asari heavy cruisers are en route to their home planet thessia. The fleet commander is Captain Nylis T' halyt. The fourth fleet is in fact a patrol fleet together with an orbital station that monitors the sector 3A of Thessia in orbit. The planet surface below the sector has higher concentration of eezo. Before their arrival, just then they had finished off a pirate group in the Attican traverse when Thessia command mentioned an illegal piracy in their asari controlled space in the traverse.

"Captain! Our ship's long range sensors picked up an unidentified vessel at 4AU in east of Thessia" said an asari officer in the bridge.

"Show me" said the captain. Captain Nylis T'halyt has strong reputation among the asari and even among the citadel races. Her fleet has engaged the highest number of pirate groups in the galaxy. So she's kind of an expert when it comes to hunting down the pirates and slavers. She thought she could do the same to this newly found vessel, if it turns out to be pirates only to her disappointment. The holo display showed the image of the ship causing everyone in the bridge to drop their jaws.

"Mam! The sensor readings shows the ship is 5kms in length...And also reading a fluctuating gravity distortions in the ships rear end. Bu-...There's not even a trace of eezo in it!" said the officer in shock and disbelief. Nylis was dumbstruck for a moment.

"By the goddess! How's that possible!" exclaimed the captain in terror as the largest ship in this galaxy is their super dreadnought 'Destiny Ascention' which is the citadel fleet's flagship. Also a ship that big needs unimaginable amounts of eezo. The captain wondered how this ship can even move without it. Eezo is the heart of this galaxy's technology. Also the ship's design was so strange and terrorizing for they have never seen anything like this since 'sovereign'. But even sovereign was only 2kms in length.

"Is it the Alliance, turians or the salarians?" asked the captain in tense.

"No mam! the ship's EM profile doesn't match any of them. They can't build anything that big and the design is completely different" replied the officer.

Even then, the captain had more doubts with the alliance, since they had been the council's more favorite. So there's likely a chance that the alliance can have resources to build this ship. But she knew she can't blindly conclude anything. She had be more careful. A 5km long ship near by Thessia is not something to be shrugged off, but at the same time, one wrong step could cost them anything. Nylis felt that size wasn't big of a factor and thought that this could be just a mere intimidation and nothing beyond it's striking appeal.

"Alright, open the fleet wide channel and begin transmission on my mark. Now get us close" ordered the captain. The officer opened up a channel and then the fleet made a short FTL jump to hold their position 100kms from the unknown ship.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

Master chief, Cortana and other blue team members didn't know what to do when Cortana said they were again in the Milky way galaxy. More to that, 7 unidentified vessels are en route to their position. The holographic image is displayed in front of chief.

"Chief, we got 7 unknown vessels approaching our position in FTL" said Cortana wondering how the sensors were able to pickup the ships moving in FTL without slipspace rupture. Cortana was analyzing the design of the ships. It was different. The Dawn's equipped with advanced sensors, so her technical eyes were able to see through the ship details. She got the information on the ship's technology and it was odd. Her digital eyes widened in confusion.

"That's strange, They don't use slipspace. Instead they move at FTL speeds in the normal space itself" Cortana said in a low voice which the Chief picked up. Cortana brought the hologram of a digital model of the unknown fleet moving at FTL speed in normal space with some numerical values around the ship's image. Cortana had to thank the sensors as it was able to track the objects moving in FTL speed in the normal space. Usually, slipspace ruptures are detected before hand by picking up the gravitational relativistic echoes that are generated in normal space seconds before the ships comes out. But neither UNSC nor the Covenant had the technology to track ships with in the slipspace itself.

Forerunners didn't have that too. But they were able to use the reconciliation effects generated due to the hydro static expansion internally from slipstream to normal space brane. This in turn distort the relative time and distance of travel. This effect was proportional to the mass transported through slipstream space. Forerunners had a greater understanding of this phenomenon and used it to their advantage and thus detecting movement across the 11-dimensional region through the normal space.

"Hm, it looks like the dawn can still get a lock on them" said Chief who too was amused with the fact.

But the Chief couldn't help but think hard about this place. Cortana said that they had reached the Milky way contradictory to the place what they were briefed on. The other blue team members had the same feeling.

"I can't help but wonder how we landed in the same Milky way?" asked Chief in brooding voice.

"Me too. Didn't the monitor mention another galaxy?" asked Fred in that same tone.

"This doesn't make sense. Black holes are powerful enough to transport matter across several billions of light years, even possibly into a different realm" said Kelly curiously gazing at the details she still had of this place in her terminal at the top corner. But that was something Cortana instantly picked up. She rushed her sight towards Kelly as if she wanted to compliment her, but something stopped her from doing that.

"What do you think Cortana? asked Chief.

"I think of a million possibilities of might have happened and one of them is crazy enough to send you all into a power nap" said Cortana with a smile. But then again, before they could react to her statement, they were all diverted by an alarm in the hologram. She saw the fleet had entered FTL towards them.

"Ships are about to reach us. They might have sensed us at a greater distance. What should we do now?" asked Cortana turning to face the Chief.

"Then we better be ready. Kelly, lock and load yourself. We got company." said Chief.

"On it" replied Kelly and left to the armory.

"Linda, take care of the ship's on board systems from this terminal"

"Sure thing" Linda went to the terminal in the bridge and brought all inner ship's defense online. The sentinels were alerted.

"Fred, take care of the weapons systems. Attack them if they make a hostile move"

"Glad to" Fred nodded and then got to his terminal.

"Raise comm when they get near" said Chief turning to Cortana.

"But they are already here, Chief" said Cortana and the next moment. Everyone got to see the fleet of unknown ship designs exiting FTL through the glass window in the front. The ships positioned themselves 100kms from their ship. Chief stared at the fleet for few seconds. His promethean mind was calculating several possibilities of incidents and engagements that can happen when they meet face to face. He felt that they must be ready to do the necessary yet handle things as smooth as possible at the same time.

"Try hailing them" said Chief.

"Actually, they are hailing us. But their comm signal encryption uses a different algorithm. I've to study and replicate it to contact them." said Cortana to which he nodded. There was only one thing in his mind. It could be another first contact scenario.

 **Asari fourth fleet**

After the fourth fleet exited the FTL, captain Nylis and her entire fleet crew saw a gigantic ship that dwarves the destiny ascension more than twice the size. Everyone got stunned after seeing the strange looking ship. Taking a detailed look, Nylis started to doubt whether if it's an advanced powerful race. The ship showed complete power. The crew members were talking to one another in murmuring voice about what they saw.

"Try contacting that ship" ordered Nylis.

"Sorry mam, but their comm systems are incompatible with us...Wait! They are hailing us. Looks like they have calibrated their comm to our standards" replied the officer. Nylis's anxiety rose high enough after getting the call. Still, she couldn't let go of the vacillation.

"What if...thing go awry? Are we prepared to face them?...Or, are they prepared to face us?" was the thought in Nylis's mind. Her fleet had fought several riders, pirates more then she could remember, but the history books don't have records of them facing a 5km ship. Her thoughts were immediately snapped by the voice that came out of the comm speakers. Everyone in the bridge were able to hear that voice.

"This is Master chief petty officer of the Navy, Spartan-117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. I need to speak with the commanding officer of the fleet."

Captain Nylis had been serving the asari navy for several decades. But what she heard in the comm didn't make any sense. "What is this UNSC? Are they a black-ops organization or any other military group?" asked a bridge officer in dilemma turning to the captain.

"Go through the copy of citadel's records and look for any group called the UNSC" ordered the captain to the officer. The officer did exactly what she was ordered to do. After a few minutes, she turned to the captain to reply.

"Captain, there are no records in the citadel database about this UNSC group" replied the officer. But something struck Nylis's mind about the name UNSC and the language the man spoke. It was English and the ranking and the acronym was very much attributed to humans. She roughly assumed that this group should be a human group. But again, that's brings another problem. Humans are represented in this galaxy as the systems alliance and the asari knew how much humanity had advanced but not this much.

"If this is indeed an alliance group, then they had simply breached the treaty of 'farixen'" thought Nylis. According to the treaty, every race should only have limited dreadnought ships and respective sizes. This was imposed to limit the extensive use of rarely obtained Eezo.

"I would love to send these people to the citadel and help them suffer a hardship for violating the treaty" muttered Nylis and then proceeded to respond to the summon.

"This is Captain Nylis T' halyt of the asari fourth fleet. I need know what race you represent and I remind that you have infiltrated asari space without authorization" There was a slight pause and then came the reply.

"We are humans and we are not hostile forces" came the voice. Everyone was shocked with the reply. They couldn't believe that the owners of this strange vessel are humans except Nylis.

"Bingo! Then it's proved. No matter the name they came themselves with, I can arrest them and surrender them to the citadel. This will be lucky day" thought Nylis, laughing her brains off.

"I need to talk to you, captain. We will have a conversation in our ship" said the Master chief. Nylis couldn't help but to accept it as she don't want any incidents in this first contact. Perhaps, it would be an opportunity for her to study them.

"I will come aboard a drop ship with a small security" said Nylis.

"Very well. We are sending a signal to your ship from our hanger. Follow that." said the Chief and closed the transmission. Nylis sighed and called her XO, Priosla M'Loor.

"Priosla, come to the bridge and take control. I've got a job to do" said Nylis.

"Yes, captain. Be there in 5 minutes" replied the XO over the comm.

She then asked for 3 soldiers to accompany her in the meeting. Then, they entered the drop ship and her pilot flew out and followed the signal to land. Everyone saw the lengthy side of the massive ship. They were totally dumbstruck with its design. They saw a wing like insignia with the ship's name below it. The owners call themselves humans, but this ship doesn't have any human touch. Finally they reached the hanger part of the ship where the party's waiting.

 **UNSC Imperial dawn**

 **"** Everyone get to the hanger" said the Chief and then turned to Cortana.

"Well, looks like its another first contact scenario after all" said Cortana. Chief was silent for a moment. Then he spoke.

"Who are these asari?...Are they some new race we haven't explored?...where did they come from?" asked Chief in confusion. Honestly, that was the question also in Cortana's mind. She can answer with the previous assumptions, but she need information to confirm that.

"John, we will know everything when we see them. Now go, I'm through out the ship, meet you there." said Cortana to which chief simply nodded and left the bridge.

He decided not to take any weapons to stir up the situation. The blue team were now waiting in the hanger with sentinels moving here and there. The hanger door opened and the hard light shield was deactivated. A drop ship entered the hanger and touched the ground and again the shield was activated immediately. From the drop ship, out came 4 blue skinned females with tentacled hair in a military attire. The captain was in the front and the 3 soldiers at the back. The blue team saw those females having blue skin and some strange facial markings along with tentacled hair or whatever. They all immediately glanced at each other in amazement. They have never seen people like them before.

"Ok, that's not something you see everyday. Are these people new to the stage?" asked Fred using the inter armor communication. Others responded by acknowledging the question with a green light in their HUD.

"We'll know what we have missed so far" replied Linda.

On the other hand, the 4 asari were seeing 4 massive figure with one standing 7'3" tall and the others almost 7'. They were terrified with their size as they had never seen humans grow this big and also their armors. The asari can very much say that the armor looked more advanced like these were made specially for people like them.

"By the goddess! Those are pretty advanced technology! Who are they really and how did they get this tech stuffs?" exclaimed Nylis in her thoughts.

They also saw what looked like drones flying here and there. A 100 mts above their head was a docked SAHARA class heavy prowler with a big door of its size nearby it. The asari were stunned with the interior. Then they saw the 7'3" figure in a strange armor walking towards them. Nylis thought that he should be the leader, and also tensed with his approach. The asari team could hear bass thuds while he walked. As he closed the distance, he grew up bigger and bigger. For a moment, she thought she thought she could use biotics to apprehend them if the situation turned hostile.

"Master chief petty officer of the Navy, Spartan-117 of the UNSC Naval special warfare. This is my team spartan-104, 087, 058" Chief said lending out his hand. He didn't divulge their names as the spartan IIs in general always kept their names to themselves and only used among them. Chief was even more protective of their names and they only say that to those who are trust worthy.

The asari captain nodded in acknowledgement, though she was wary of these people calling themselves as 'spartans' followed by a code number. Asari are gifted to read body languages. Nylis watched their movement, tone well enough to conclude that these people were soldiers to the core.

"Captain Nylis T'halyt of the asari fourth fleet. But if you are humans, then why don't you give your real names instead of giving these code names" said Nylis in a slightly militaristic tone and giving a hand shake in response. But the spartan IIs were not even shook by an inch with her authority because, their authority lies with the UNSC and UNSC alone. What troubled them was the name 'Asari'.

"What the hell is an 'Asari'?" thought Linda who was staring at the 4 aliens. Others had the same question their mind, but Chief proceeded to answer them.

"Names are classified for soldiers like us. So just go by our ranks" replied Chief. Nylis warily nodded in acknowledgement, wondering what kind of military would classify personal names.

"Ok then, Master Chief. What is this UNSC you are talking about? Is it a part of the Human Systems Alliance, government of humanity?" asked Nylis.

The whole blue team was confused with this question and shared a glance towards each other again. They wanted to assume that this race evolved isolated from the rest of the parties like the Covenant or the UNSC. But they couldn't because, when they told that they were humans, these aliens called them as Human Systems Alliance which is enough for them to know that these people already knew humanity for them to call with such an organizational name. This however brings another problem. The blue team doesn't know if these aliens call the human government as HSA for their own reference or something had really went plummeted.

Cortana was already in the hanger area hiding herself silently observing the conversation. She slowly felt that one in a million crazy possibility is getting it's odds in favor. She watched as John gave explanations.

"UNSC stands for United Nations Space command, a naval military, scientific and exploratory group once under the Unified Earth Government, now an independent body. But we don't know any Systems alliance" replied the chief whose curiosity rose to peak.

Nylis was totally confused with what she heard. She couldn't believe these humans don't know about the systems alliance. She still proceeded with the next array of questions.

"You call yourself spartan. What is the meaning of that? Also, your ship, your armors, doesn't match this galaxy's standard" said Nylis. The blue team knew that they would come to this question.

"Spartans are super soldiers trained for special naval operations" replied chief. The word 'Super-soldier' drew a lot of attention from the asari group.

"Super-soldiers? Like biological augmentations?" asked Nylis shrinking her eyebrows and letting a mild glare. The citadel government had imposed a lot of rules and regulations regarding the bio-enhancements. She's annoyed that this group had violated another citadel law, but was ambivalent whether this would apply for these people.

"Listen people, Do you have any idea what sort of problems you have got yourselves into? Bio-enhancements, big ships that break the Farixen treaty's limits. The citadel council will ground you for violation" said Nylis.

Chief and his team were blinking what she was talking about. Chief realized that something's amiss as they can't be in the dark, this much. First, a new alien race with totally different technology, then calling human government as SA, then this citadel council which they have never heard of.

Cortana who was listening to the conversation had been into their ship's systems, infiltrating for possible data extraction and the results shocked her. First, she was wondering why there aren't any AI in a ship that are advanced enough to be space faring. But the data packets she obtained from their flagship's computer stunned as she had never seen anything like that before. Her hunch was proven right. She just found out what had really happened all the time.

"Chief, I think I just know what the fuss was all about and you guyz are not gonna like it" said Cortana directly in to the internal speakers. Chief didn't respond anything to that.

"Sorry mam, but we also don't know this Citadel council you speak of" said Fred. Nylis and the asari escorts blinked at their statement, wondering how could they not know them.

"Then they must be a splinter group operating outside citadel's jurisdiction. That explains their technology and a big ship. They must illegally mined the resources to advance themselves like this" thought Nylis. Her eagerness to bring these people to the council increased tenfold. But one she didn't understand was, even a splinter incognito group should have known about the council as the government almost spans the entire galaxy. These people claiming to be humans says they don't know any council. Nylis prepared her mind in a possible engagement if this group's statements turned out to be ruse.

"What is the current galactic year?" asked Kelly who had been observing the conversation. It prompted her to compile the information exchange and ask the right question that might make some sense in this situation.

"Wha-...the galactic year is 2185" replied the captain confused with the question. She contemplated their question, wondering this was totally unconventional as of then.

The blue team was dumb with the answer she gave, a moment of silence prevailed. They instantly got the idea of traveling through time into the past. But they already knew their history accurately from their beginning till as of 2557. According to them, 2185 was the year that saw the rise of human expansion, UEG and the UNSC. By that time, humanity had never acquainted with the other alien races. But these people claim to know humanity already, another piece of the answer to the uncertainty.

Cortana lost her patience and decided to show up, "Alright, time for a show off" muttered the AI and revealed herself out of a pedestal nearby the asari captain and her escorts.

"Did you say 2185, mam?" asked Cortana. This alarmed both the captain and her guards and they immediately raised their weapons at her. Other blue team members raised their M6G magnum upon them immediately.

"Easy now. Put your guns down!" said chief in a raising tone.

"What are you!?" asked the captain in a loud trembling voice

"I'm UNSC AI CTN 0452-9. You can call me Cortana." Cortana greeted them with a smile. The 4 asari were terrified after learning they have a AI on board.

"Are you mad!? You have an AI in your ship!" the captain yelled at Chief and holding her weapon even more firmly. But others excluding Cortana were surprised with their reaction to an AI. Cortana having sneaked into their database had found out the reason for their negative reaction already.

"Stand down! First, no weapons raising in my ship, Second, AIs are common among UNSC. They are more like our family" said the Chief, warning the new people. The spartans didn't understand why they reacted harsh towards the AI as these must be common among all space faring species.

Captain and her guards lowered their weapons left with no choice, but still held their weapons loaded with a tight grip.

"Now, I can clearly see your frustrations of seeing an AI, but seriously, you don't want to piss them off" said Cortana, hands crossed and eyebrow raised, pointing to the spartans. Nylis was shocked to see how the AI interacted more like human. Everyone in the galaxy had seen only the advanced VIs which marginally pass for UNSC's dumb AI.

"Listen, AIs are banned in the galaxy. If the council learns of this, its gonna be a very big problem" said the tensed captain. The blue team seemed to hear the same citadel council again. They thought that this council should be a galactic body serving as the political overseer of all the races in the Milky way.

"Chief, I managed to peek into their systems to look for answers and trust me when I say I know what this citadel council is. Just ask them to take us there. I'll explain things later" said Cortana into his ears inside the helmet. Chief knew Cortana's abilities especially after her rampancy was cured. So he trusted her and went along with her idea.

"Can you take us to the council? I think it's best if we talked to them, explain everything in detail" asked the chief. Nylis and her escorts hesitated at first, but so far they haven't made any hostile move, so she thought can believe them for now though she can't resist the warily towards them. This day might be her best or the worst.

"Alright, We will get you there" replied the captain.

"Before that, we need information about the council like who are they and what they do" said Fred. Nylis looked at the spartans and the AI who were waiting for answers.

"The council is primarily comprised of an asari, a turian, a human and a salarian councilor. They are housed in a massive space station called 'The Citadel' - the heart of the galactic civilization. You being humans can seek help from the human embassy of the citadel." explained the captain. The spartans again confused with the term 'Turians' and 'Salarians'. They assumed them to be another new races. This time Chief didn't hesitate to ask Cortana.

"Cortana?"

"Chief, I think that crazy one in million possibility was what had happened. Not just these 3 new races. But there are several others and their influence spread among the UNSC controlled and Covenant controlled zones yet we don't know about that" replied Cortana.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" asked the rattled Chief.

"Not now. I need to create a new database for the upcoming records. I will explain it once we get to the citadel" replied Cortana. Chief mentally sighed at the response and spoke to Nylis.

"Listen, if this citadel is your galactic ruling body, then it's better if we sought them. So, we formally request you to take us there" said the Chief. Nylis was having a tough time to make decisions, but if she get them to the citadel, it would be their headache then. So that she can carry out her work.

"I will, but there's a problem. The citadel space can be reached only through a mass relay. As your ship doesn't use eezo, you cannot use the relays for long FTL travel." said Nylis.

"A mass relay?" asked Linda, demented.

"Listen we don't need any mass relays you talk about. We have our own way of FTL travel" said Cortana.

"Just give us the coordinates to the citadel. And it would be nice if you assist us coz we're not willing to enter the citadel for some nasty surprises" said the Chief.

But Nylis was still stuck with the first statement that their ships don't use Eezo or mass relays for the FTL. Nylis trembled a little as all the ships can reach the citadel only through the relays and the citadel security team would know if someone is approaching them. Entering the citadel space all of a sudden by unknown means will just stir things up for worse.

"What do you mean you don't need relays! With out that, its gonna take decades for you to reach the citadel with conventional FTL" said the captain in a raised tone.

"Listen, We don't have to waste time in this pointless conversation. We need the help of the citadel council. Please give the coordinates as we requested" said Fred who got slightly irate with this non-sensical situation.

Captain Nylis thought for a moment. Though the people in front of her are perfect strangers. They meant no harm, so she decided to help them at her own risk.

"Alright. I'll assist you to the citadel. Before that let me send my fleet to the orbital station" Nylis said to which Chief and the others nodded in acceptance. Nylis then sent a message to her fleet XO and asked them to report to the sector 3A station over Thessia.

"Before going to the citadel, I would like see this mass relay. Is there one nearby?" asked Cortana in eagerness.

"Yes. There is one in this system. Before we leave, you can have a closer look" said the captain.

Then they reached the bridge. Kelly, Fred, Linda went to their respective terminals. The asari group was stunned to see the blissful sight of the ship's bridge. Chief stood nearby his seat with Cortana showing herself in the nearby projector. Then the ship accelerated towards the position of the relay. There everyone saw a structure, tuning fork shaped with a circular ring at the end having a glowing energy with 2 gyroscopic rings rotating around it. But Chief was not that much impressed as they had seen bigger things.

"Quite impressive. So this is how you jump from one cluster to another?" asked Cortana raising her eyebrow to which the asari nodded her head with a sense of pride in her face to be in possession of something like this. But Chief, Cortana and the others never gave any expression regarding that.

Nylis and her guards holstered their weapons in the bridge. On their way, they saw jelly squid like creatures which for them looked similar to a hanar.

Chief asked the captain regarding this galaxy's story. Nylis then explained everything starting from the asari's discovery of mass relays and the citadel. Then followed by the arrival of other races like turians, salarians, humans, volus, elcor, hanar etc., Humanity's first discovery of the mass relay at the edge of their solar system called the 'charon' relay. They also learned about the humanity's first contact with the turians, when humans opened the dormant mass relays causing the battle of Shanxi. Followed by the intervention of the council and bringing up new regulations for opening up new relays. This reminded the UNSC members of their first contact with the covenant and how it almost wiped humanity from existence. Also the inner struggles they had before the covenant's arrival.

They also learned of the Rachni wars caused by a similar relay incident 2000 years ago. This reminded chief of the Flood parasite and the threat it posed the entire galaxy. Then the up liftment of krogans by the salaraians to win the rachni war. The threat of krogan population explosion which was ultimately settled by an Bio-engineered sterility plague called the 'genophage'. Also they learned of this humanity's struggle in the colony of skillian blitz that suffered heavy casualties at the hands of pirates. Though not on the level of losses the UNSC suffered in the 26th century, Still the Chief and the others felt that this galaxy has faced a fair share of troubles.

Meanwhile Cortana's face frowned and turned bilious at the sight of the mass relay. Chief caught up to her face expression and talked to her.

"Any problem, Cortana?" asked Chief with concern while the 4 asari were looking at her.

"Nothing, a simple error in my calculations. That's all" said Cortana pretending to be nothing. Chief can see that in her face but didn't wish to press it for now.

Alright, What can you tell us about the technologies your people use?" asked Kelly.

Nylis continued with her explanations. The blue team then learned of this strange element they call eezo that can alter a mass of an object by passing an electric current through it. This helped them develop technology based on that property like weapons, transport, artificial gravity, FTL travel etc., Also the same element exposed on a living being's body giving them abilities to manipulate dark energy to create something they called 'mass effect'. This unique ability is called as 'biotics'.

Finally, the captain gave them information on the 50,000 year old race called the Protheans. Once a highly flourished empire and technologically advanced. The current galaxy believes that the protheans build the mass relays and the citadel as the pinnacle of technological advancements.

This very much reminded Chief of the forerunners and their mantle of responsibility, having fought and killed one before coming here. Humans and every species of the Milky way viewed the forerunners as a something as the old masters, though humans saw them only as technologically superior than everyone.

With that they finished their conversation. For brief study, Chief opened a mini holo computer in his left forearm armor part and interfaced with an orange hologram gauntlet style computer in the asari's forearm. Then chief downloaded the galaxy's info archive called the 'codex' which he can study for more details. The other 3 spartans instantly shared it from John.

It was very much clear for the blue team that this galaxy though named the Milky way is no where same they knew of. The history of this galaxy is strangely different, deviated and above all, they felt they have reached an alternate version of the Milky way like those in comic books and science fiction. But the Spartan IIs were trained as kids with not only the realistic lessons but also taught them fictional events and incidents as an exemplar for the truth about a situation's realistic nature.

So far what they had read and learned from this new Asari group prompted them to think of the impossible, an alternate reality whose existence was very much in debate. They knew things about black holes and how it is believed by the scientific community that it can transport matter across a different space-time dimensions. It wasn't a blind premise, but things have turned out the way such that the theory of alternate realities was what that made sense. Anyway, the Spartans don't want to conclude things by themselves without consulting their highly fast and intelligent friend, Cortana.

Then Nylis asked about the UNSC and their story to which the chief replied that she will know while explaining it to the council.

"Thanks for the history. Now its time we were in the citadel." said the Chief.

"Cortana, ready when you are" said the Chief.

Cortana nodded and uploaded the coordinates that Nylis gave her, into the slipspace drive. The drive in turn returned the acknowledgement signal.

Nylis and her escorts were pretty excited to see the live functionality of their non-Eezo FTL travel.

"Initiate the slipspace rupture, Cortana" said the Chief to which she nodded with a smile and prepared the ship to jump.

The asari couldn't understand this 'Slipspace' they talked about. After getting safe away to a distance from the mass relay, the next thing the crew spotted was a big portal with a black void and bluish white energy in the edges appeared in front of the ship. The hologram in front of chief showed a deep spatial distortion. The asari were dumbstruck with the portal's appearance and before they could say a word, the ship entered slipspace and the portal closed completely the next second.

 **In the Citadel Space.**

The citadel space was having its usual patrol fleets including DA on the run. Since sovereign's attack, The security has been doubled and many new regulations had been brought on by the council regarding the incoming and outgoing of ships from and out of the citadel space. The headache that the former council rogue turian spectre, Saren brought almost costed the entire citadel.

Admiral David Anderson is a renowned former alliance N7 soldier from the Arcturus station with exceptional records. He was also offered a position as a Spectre. Thanks to Saren arterius, that was ruined. Now, he acts as an advisor to councilor Udina. Commander shepard of the alliance, after defeating the sovereign and saving the council, chose Udina as the human councilor as he very much knew the ways of a politician. On the contrary, Anderson is a soldier and the only thing he was best was in fighting a war.

He's also quite upset with Shepard working currently with the human black-ops organization, 'Cerberus' to take down the mysterious collectors when they started taking out human colonists. But he know that Shepard always does the right thing. Though the council reinstates his spectre status, they still denied to help him with the collectors going so far to call them as myths.

Now Anderson's currently on his routine work monitoring the feeds from the alliance fleet to his personal terminal in his office in the embassy. While he himself commands a ship, that's only around their home world. Still as an admiral, he have his duties to maintain the human fleet that serves as the humanity contributed citadel patrol. While this is marginal compared to the Asari fleet and razor thin compared to the Turian fleet, The human fleet was the one that took down Sovereign 2 years back.

"Admiral Anderson, This is captain Milller of SSV Fuji. Our sensors are picking up a massive gravitational distortion just outside the citadel defence perimeter"

Anderson tensed a lot instantly as there weren't anything weird that happened for quite a long time. Now a gravitational anomaly near the citadel is a head spinning trouble.

"What is it captain!?"

"Don't know sir! whatever it is...It's massive!...never seen readings like this!" said the captain who was frantic.

"What readings are you talking about?" asked the admiral.

"Our sensors picked up the energy spikes as bright as Times square" replied another bridge officer of the SSV Fuji.

Anderson immediately ordered the ship to get to the position to have a clear view. Even the turian, asari fleet were alerted of this energy readings and held their position to face whatever it is. The next thing they saw made their jaws to drop. There was a big black void with bluish white energy in the edges that immediately formed an accretion disk of the nebular cloud.

Anderson received a live video feed in his terminal directed from Fuji. A massive, 5km long ship came out to everyone's shock. The portal then closed rapidly after their exit. Anderson was stunned to the core as he had never seen a ship and this big in his life before. It was totally alien yet had a marginal human touch to it. The hull was deep blue black. But what grabbed Anderson's attention was the eagle insignia and English letters on the available hull space.

"Sir! A massive ship and it's nothing like we have ever seen!" said the captain of SSV Fuji in terror.

"Did you scan the ship?"

"Yes sir, but the signals are bouncing away by an unknown field that's giving off high energy signatures from the ship"

"What is it?" asked Anderson. This time the captain replied.

"A high power source with out the galactic chart readings. Sir! Trust me when I say that the source can power a whole goddamn planet for several years" barked the Captain.

Anderson was completely taken back with what the captain told him. He then saw the display of that ship in his terminal that was sent by the Fuji. Anderson couldn't believe what he saw. That ship easily dwarfed all the ships in the galaxy. It also carried a sense of immense power in it's appeal, a mighty warship. But there were no fleet in the Alliance that had ships this big or even the design it had. What intrigued him even more was the ship's arrival with out the use of mass relay and that too close to the citadel itself.

"Holy shit! That ship, it's got something something written in English. But does it mean they are friends. What if it's a lie and an unknown enemy is trying to infiltrate? Could it be collectors?" Anderson thought flooded his brain with tension. All the citadel fleet were now facing that new ship.

"Admiral! Incoming transmission from the ship in all available frequencies"

"Turn ON the translation software and put it on the speakers" said Anderson.

To everyone's surprise it was a human voice that spoke in English. He was sure that the other race's ships would do the same in translating the language.

"This is Master chief Petty Officer of the Navy, Spartan-117, NavalSpecialWarfareDivision, of the UNSC Imperial Dawn"

After the entire citadel fleet and Anderson heard this, This was totally unexpected for them. It was perfect English and had the human vocal touch in the tone.

"I'm not a hostile force. I'm here to speak with the council members. We also have an Asari captain Nylis of the fourth fleet aboard our ship to act as our mediator. Requesting permission to enter the citadel's docking bay. But if we are greeted with hostile actions, then I will be forced to defend myself anyway possible"

This was even more alarming as the ship had an Asari crew member. This is when the councilors intervened and asked the citadel command to grant them entry in to docking bay. Then the fleet relayed this information to the UNSC Imperial Dawn.

Anderson was totally glazed with what happened a few minutes ago. One thing was clear for him. This was something he never expected. Anderson's worry was that if the people of the citadel learned of a behemoth of a ship entered citadel space with out mass relay, there's definitely gonna be a mass hysteria questioning the safety of the station. The results would be simply a riot of epic proportions.

"Everything's fine for the day and here comes the catch. First the Sovereign, then the collectors...Now What!?" muttered Anderson irately.

 **...**

 **Don't forget to review**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect.**

 **Chapter 5: Learn the truth and make decisions**

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

Chief, Cortana and the blue team members took a look at the citadel. Though not impressed, still they had to give credits to these protheans to build something like damn big like this. A holographic image of the citadel was projected in front of the chief and relevant data projected around the image with arrows.

"Hm, quiet a place. Linda, can you give the exact astrometric data of this station? " asked the Chief.

"The map indicate this region as the Serpent nebula, located at a -1.7 degree vertical deflection from the galactic plane" said Linda.

"Wow, the plasma radiations from the cloud are pitching out of the display. The hard light shields are filtering the high energy particles with little interference in the sensors"

"That's why I rerouted an additional 3.5% power to the holographic imaging systems for better convergence" replied Fred.

Cortana was silent for a long time. While she managed to get a glance of the station from an information bank in the Asari fleet, this was when she got the live view. Every one stared at the station in front of them and shared their opinions.

"These protheans must really be creative to build something like this" spoke Linda-058.

Then Chief took Cortana's data chip and inserted it at his helmet's back.

"Cortana?" asked chief to which she replied that she's fine. Chief was worried about her since she saw the mass relay.

"So let's get down there and see it to ourselves" said Chief and turned to walk only to be stopped by Fred with his left hand in the middle.

"Chief, I hope we stay silent and not attract to much attention. From what we have seen so far, it makes much sense that people here are just gonna freak out when they see us" said Fred. The others acknowledged his point.

"That's right. We will draw quite a crowd even if we stand there for an extra minute in additional" said Kelly.

"Our job is to meet the council and get outta here. Like you all, I too don't want this to happen" replied Chief in assurance.

Then he ordered his team to load themselves and get to the hanger and board a pelican. Cortana found that the dawn is too big to be docked into the citadel bay. So she suggested a drop ship to be good enough for drop and pick up.

In the armory, There were variety of weapons. The MA5D Gauss assault rifles, M739 gauss LMGs, 99C series 2 Anti-material Sniper rifles(gauss variant), M45E tactical shotguns, Type54 DE pistols and type55 DE rifles, Type57 covenant carbines, Type50 DE heavy rifles, Type52 special application rifles, Fuelrod guns and forerunner weapons that include Z-130 DE rifles, Z-250 DE engagement rifles, Z-390 anti-material High explosive rifles, Z-750 special application sniper rifles. Covenant plasma grenades, UNSC incinerator grenades, energy swords.

John carried a MA5D and type 57 carbine, a type 54 plasma pistol in the right thigh with grenades in the slipspace. Kelly carried dual M739 LMGs and one type 55 DE rifle. Linda carried a 99C sniper rifle and an LMG. Fred carried a M45E shotgun, a MA5D rifle and an energy sword.

The 4 asari were already waiting in the hanger. The blue team arrived and Cortana brought a D79-TC pelican to the ground. D79 model carries advanced tech and Chief and Cortana saw it's use the first time aboard the Infinity at Requiem. Then the blue team and the 4 asari boarded the pelican and the door was closed. Everyone had their seats and Chief was the one to pilot the drop ship. Cortana commanded the sentinels to be armed within and put the entire ship to complete lock down.

There's also a special communicator within the spartans MJOLNIR armor that allows Cortana to connect directly with the ship from inside the armor. The spartans can too do that with out Cortana. This would serve them well in all contingencies. Cortana made sure the weapon systems are online and functional when needed.

Chief flew the drop ship towards the citadel docking bay. "This is Spartan-117 to citadel command. We are approaching the docking bay in a drop ship"

"Roger that"

Then the C-Sec captain Bailey was ordered to escort their new guests. Captain Bailey took 2 human and 2 turian officers with him to the docking bay.

The drop ship slowly touched directly the floor space of the dock besides the place where a frigate like ships could fit well. Then the back door opened and out came the 4 asari and then the blue team. By the time, they all got to see a welcome party approaching them and stopped at a certain distance.

Captain Bailey and the guards just stared at the 4 massive figures that walked towards them with Chief being more intimidating. The guards were slightly tensed after seeing them. They saw those armored people carrying unknown weapons with them on their backs and thighs.

Chief identified 2 humans and 2 aliens which he remembered as turians from the codex with their avian like appearance. The spartans's helmet visors immediately scanned the turians simply when they stared at them for 2 seconds and displayed all the biological information. They could see the bird like tissue structures and the body shape and the skeletal arrangements. Their 4 jaws reminded them of their now Sanghelli allies though vaguely in their resemblance. The muscle mass suggests that they are not as strong as the sanghelli. The guards carried their version of assault rifles just like captain Nylis and her escorts. He assumed it to be standard issue for the soldiers and security forces alike.

"Hello Sir, I'm captain Bailey of the citadel security forces" lend his hand with slight tense.

"Master chief Spartan-117, you can call me chief. This is my team" giving a light hand shake to bailey

"Well chief, I take it that spartan-117 is your code name?" asked Bailey to which Chief simply nodded.

"Very well. Admiral Anderson asked me to escort you all to his office" said bailey to which Chief and his friends nodded.

"And captain Nylis? Councilor Tevos would like to meet you in the chamber"

"We'll be right away" said the captain and she and her escorts left the place to meet with the councilor.

"Chief, before getting to the embassy, We need to confiscate your weapons as per the citadel regulations"

"That's not gonna happen! we-" said Kelly in a raising tone and pointing her finger towards him, but immediately cut by the chief. The guards were looking at her, alerted themselves by holding the weapon's grip so tight. Though Bailey wasn't amused with their hesitation, he understood that kind of usual reaction. It may come from anyone. But the captain and his guards had a slight doubt that these people might not be from around here.

"Wait...Captain, you need to understand that this is a first contact scenario for us and also we're new to citadel. We need to keep ourselves armed should anything happen to us." explained Chief. Bailey was confused with the term 'First contact'. He wondered how the hell they never got to know about the citadel before as the whole galaxy's under their watch. Still anyhow, Bailey pressed this matter against them.

"I'm sorry sir, but it's our rules to be followed. And don't worry, you wont run into trouble on my watch" replied the C-Sec captain. This time, Cortana spoke to Chief through the internal speakers.

"It's okay Chief, give them the weapons. We can always get it back" said Cortana in his head. Chief was worried about the technology falling into their hands. But Cortana convinced him to do it. When they learned about the technology they used, the blue team was already worried about those specific groups who would eventually be interested in their technology as the parties in this version of the galaxy they are present don't use stuffs related to the UNSC, Covenants or Forerunners, instead heavily relying on this mass effect especially the reverse engineered Prothean tech.

"Alright. But we need those back in one piece and we wont remove our armors as they are an integral part of us" said the chief in a clear voice. The guards recognized that statement more as a warning than a request.

"Fine enough" sighed bailey. Then Chief's team members spoke to him through the suit's internal comm.

"Chief, you really wanna do this?" asked Fred - 104 concerned.

"I don't like this one bit. What if they figured out our weapon systems?" asked Linda.

"It's okay team. We need to respect their rules and something tells me that it would be a hard time for them to figure it out" replied Chief.

Then the blue team gave their weapons to the c-sec officers. They grunted in response at the weapons weight but giving them credit for hefting such weapons. The officers found them to be strange as no weapons profile matched any standard issues. Some rifles were even warm that looked different from the category of other weapons they carried. Bailey wondered how these people were able to carry this much of weapons with ease while they felt difficult to move it even to a short distance.

"Alright, now with a quick medical scan, let's move to the admiral's office." said bailey opened the omni-tool and made a quick medical scan of the four and sent it to the councilors terminal. Bailey is given an advanced savant X omni-tool which can perform a good medical check up. But even with that, Bailey scowled a bit at the difficulty of the scanning process. Three times, it failed to scan the people and it annoyed him a lot.

"Damn thing just wont work!" gritted Bailey hard pressing his omni-tool.

"Somebody's in trouble it seems. Before this becomes another problem, I'm gonna let the firewalls down in your armors for the time being. After the scans are complete, I'll raise it again" said Cortana. The blue team gave a green acknowledgement signal with in their suits. Then she let the firewalls down and there was a ping from the captain's omni-tool indicating successful scanning.

"Hah, Bingo! Gave me a headache for a moment. This thing's new and the higher ups will charge my ass if this thing breakup" chuckled Bailey.

"Is the medical scan over, captain Bailey?" asked Chief.

"Wha-? Oh yeah, it's over. Just have to send it to the-...Done. Let's go" replied Bailey who just sent the reports to the councilors terminals.

The spartans then followed him to the human embassy.

On their way, they saw different species apart from humans which they identified from the codex as volus, elcors. Also there were turians, salarians and asari. They also saw a strange quadrapeds in a bio-mechanical arm working on terminals. When asked about them, Bailey explained that they are keepers, maintenance beings of the citadel. Bailey took them in a sky car to the human councilor's office.

The spartans learned about the salarians and it intrigued them. They had slender body and fast running mouth. Also their 40 year life span indicated that they had extraordinary metabolism going inside their body. But the same metabolism hyper accelerated their brain development and are thus generally considered to be the people of highest scientific brilliance. Also, others feel that they usually show their different emotions alike with little variance to notice.

They also studied about the Volus who served as the first client race for the council. They reminded them of the covenant grunts. They use a similar breather suit all the time as the atmosphere is incompatible. They gave credits to these species who control the largest finance section of this galaxy though wondering they never got a seat in the council.

And then this huge 4 legged Elcor. The spartans assumed them to be from high gravity environments. This reminded them of the early science lesson they had on reach that high gravity environments tends to support species of high strength and weight.

While flying in the skycar, Chief happened to see the real Hanar which he saw only back at the data-pad.

"What can you tell me about those creature?" asked Chief. Bailey looked at the spot where the man pointed his fingers to only to see the hanar. Bailey looked at the armored people confused with their question as the hanar are a common species found in the galaxy.

"Well, those jelly fishes are the hanar but we call them religious criers. These things worship the protheans like they are gods. There is some level tolerance with these bastards with the others. Still, they are peaceful and quite most of the time. But never mind the killer grip they got under our noses" explained the captain. The spartans chuckled among themselves when they heard him say these species worship protheans as gods.

This very much reminded them of the covenant who worshiped the Forerunners as gods and idols but also brought a total death to humanity. The blue team quite figured out that hanar's religious enactment was peaceful which they appreciated but never bothered.

Finally, the sky car reached the embassy quarters.

"Here it is, people. To the right side is the human embassy and external affairs" said Bailey as everyone got out of the sky car.

The spartans got to see the surrounding area. There were statues, pool of water and fountains. People of all the races walking here and there, talking. There was this peace they saw in the atmosphere. They even spotted a human couple seated in the chair with the man holding a baby in his hands. Even with all their indoctrination, This view was the rarest of the sight they held on to as it is highly improbable they would ever see it again, given their mission.

Overall, John and the other spartans made a 90% conclusion by themselves that this galaxy is not theirs yet being called the Milky way, hence a proof that it is indeed an alternate universe or a version of the place they originally come from. This time they acknowledge it with little hesitation. All they need to do is get a confirmation from Cortana.

The chief and the others turned left behind the embassy reception area and entered a big hall with a long table and 3 holo terminals. The other end of the hall had a slab above which it is an open space completely. They were able to see the sky cars flying above the ground and also people walking in the ground pathways. It was another pleasant view.

"Admiral Anderson's in the council chamber with Udina. I'll send them a message and they will come here shortly" said Bailey sending them a message and leaving the hall.

The spartans then relaxed themselves for the moment walking slowly around the hall to every corner taking a good look at the place.

"Chief, I need get myself out. Would you?" asked Cortana. Chief extended his right hand palm and Cortana's avatar projected out and then grew to regular size. the blue team wondered why she wanted to get out.

"Cortana. I wanted to ask you something regarding your reaction in the ship while we were talking with the Asari captain"

"I know Chief. That's why I came out. I need to tell you something, people" said Cortana keeping her face serious.

"Is there a problem?" asked Kelly after looking at Cortana.

"Well, there is" replied the AI. The four glanced at each other in confusion.

"Alright, spit it out" said Fred.

The four were eager to listen the AI. Chief in particular felt a sense of trouble in her. Cortana relaxed herself and then spoke,

"When we stayed near the mass relay in the Asari space before jumping to the citadel, I was able to interface with the relay's deep computer system. Actually that system is well hidden inside the structure so that no one can find it."

"Okay. What did you find out?" asked Chief dragging his words

"From that relay, I were able to instantly connect with another relay in a distant cluster. The whole galaxy has a network of mass relays"

"You mean there are lot of it?" asked Kelly

"Yes. These relays in fact communicate with each other, sending and receiving information regarding whoever's using the relay for FTL jump and stored in the relays deep computers like a record. I don't know for what purpose. Also when I temporarily entered the network, I found these relays have a master control, a junction which itself is another mass relay from which all the relays in the galaxy can be controlled."

"Like the Ark controlling the halo arrays?" asked Chief getting the analogy.

"Precisely. When we entered the citadel space, I identified an exact match with the master control signal. It originates from the citadel"

This news was terrific for the spartans as that meant only one thing.

"Cortana, are you saying that this citadel is the master control relay!?" asked Chief in a serious tone.

"That's my point John. But at present, there's no link between the citadel and the relays. Only my search from the relay led me to this place. And there's even more to it"

"Looks like we got a lot of surprises. Okay, go ahead" said Fred to which everyone simply looked at him and then turned towards Cortana.

"All the races in this galaxy thinks that the protheans were the architects of the mass relays and the citadel"

"I know that from the codex Cortana. what's your point?" asked Chief.

"That's absurd John. Mass relays and the citadel are not the feats of prothean engineering. They merely just found them 80,000 years ago just like the Asari did after that. Protheans used these relays to advance themselves for the next 30,000 years before they vanished. According to the datas I found, These relays and the citadel were in this galaxy for almost a billion years"

This information sent shock to their faces. They couldn't believe that these artifacts are almost a billion years old. An hour before, they all assumed that this place was prothean tech as what they read in the codex and the statements given by those Asari.

"Okay, this is weird. You say that everyone in the galaxy is deluded with their assumptions?" asked Linda, brooded to which Cortana nodded.

"Guys, I also found something else" Cortana said. The spartans blinked wondering what else she had got.

"When I got myself caught in the closed loop of the galactic relay network, I found one control relay which is the citadel, but there's also another end point for this network" said Cortana.

"What end point is that?" asked Kelly.

"You won't believe this! The end point is in the dark space, the void outside the Milky way" replied Cortana. This stunned the spartans.

"Why would a signal go out of the galaxy into the dark space?" asked Fred in a haunted tone. The spartans knew of a place that existed far outside the Milky way. A facility called the 'Ark', constructed by the forerunners. They were wondering if there's anything here similar to the ark that receives and sends signals.

"That I do not know, Fred. But that signal to the dark space is bidirectional from this point" said Cortana.

"Point?You mean the citadel? The citadel sends and receive the signal from the dark space?" asked Chief on a hunch after compiling the information that Cortana told them.

"Yes. But I have no idea who or what transceive that signal out in the dark space is a mystery" replied Cortana. The spartans though felt unnecessary with these facts, still there was a feeling that this might be an important discovery, a puzzle that needs to be solved. Also they felt this could be somehow tied to their mission unknowingly.

"Wait, you said that the relays have hidden computer that stores data. If this signal is tied to the relays somehow, are there any records of it's existence?" asked Chief. The others were wondering what the Chief was trying to get to. Cortana grinned at his question.

"Hm, I was expecting that question. Yes, there are records of the previous use of signals not just once, but a 24000 times. The time span between each use is 50,000 years" replied Cortana. This stunned the spartans.

"24,000-...50,000 years-...That makes 1.2 billion years in total" replied Fred in a serious yet, deadpanned tone.

"But what does that mean?" asked Linda.

"Also the currently galaxy states that the protheans mysteriously vanished in the same 50,000 years back" said Cortana.

Chief made thousands of cross references with the overall information he had acquired, to find a possible connection between them, a small, but a powerful one. He slowly walked around them in deep thought while the others looked at him.

"The monitor in Iridescent said that there was a signal that originated from the portal which the librarian picked up and recorded. It was recorded 3 times in history with the last one being recorded while you were there" said Chief beginning his presumption.

"And the librarian stated that the signal mentioned about a war and galactic annihilation. Here we have a possible positive ID for the same 50,000 year old pattern for the signal, which Cortana found out from the mass relay network" said Fred who picked up where Chief left.

"So the question stands here. Is this the pattern what the librarian recognized way back? The galaxy wide annihilation every 50,000 years?" asked Kelly.

"If yes, then who sent the signal? Clearly the signal we received in our place is not the one that goes into the dark space. But it's clear enough that someone sent it so that anyone might respond from our place and that's exactly what the librarian did, record what she experienced" said Linda. But Cortana stared at Linda in confusion which she noticed.

"What?" asked Linda.

"Our?...Place?" asked Cortana who was ambivalent with her words. The spartans understood her confusion and decided to clear that part.

"Actually, we just presumed where we could be exactly based on the information we gathered about this galaxy" said Kelly.

"Cortana, we believe that this Milky way might be an alternate version of the place we come from" said Chief. Cortana's face turned surprised and was amazed with the spartans assumptions.

"I never thought you would be into such things!" said Cortana smiling at them.

"But that's the only explanation that kinda made sense" replied Kelly. Cortana was speechless. She wanted to tell the same but abstained herself from doing as she didn't know how they would react.

"Actually, you won't believe this but that's the truth people. We are indeed in an alternate universe, no doubt about that" said Cortana wide eyed. The spartans were little surprised as they already had their doubts. Now felt relieved that it was confirmed.

"So that portal we came through is not a gateway to another galaxy, but to another reality" said Kelly in realization.

"Who do you think would have built something like that? And why did they build that? Not the forerunners. Because the librarian herself didn't know, right?" asked Fred.

"May be or the librarian might have known yet concealed that part of the truth" replied Chief.

"If she truly wanted to help, then she must have never concealed anything. Maybe she never knew including the monitor" said Cortana

"Whatever, one thing is clear enough for us. This alternate universe Milky way is threatened by an unknown force and the forerunners from our place wanted to help. We accepted to help no matter the place" said Chief who wanted to conclude this conversation.

"Out mission got a new insight. First to assess the unknown threat, then to find who built the portal" said Fred. Others nodded in approval.

"Is there any way we could get back to our place?' asked Chief.

"The portal we entered seems to be a one way route. But if i am correct, then there should be another artifact that could take us home. I've already gathered data regarding the portal's nature, the gravity field and the artifact's nature to look for another object like this. but it will take time. until then, we are struck here.' said Cortana with a sigh.

With that they finished the conversation. It was a lot for them to process. It will take time for them to get going with the facts. Suddenly they heard 2 men talking by the entrance. Cortana immediately vanished in to chief's palm. The door opened and out came a man in his commanding officer uniform and another in a rich pale yellow suit that revealed him as a politician.

"I told you Anderson! The situation has got ou-" suddenly they cut their speech after seeing 4 towering humans in a armor with the tallest one looking more strange. They suddenly stopped and then started walking slowly towards them.

"Oh, Hello! I take it you four are our new guests" Udina asked with tense in his face as he felt the 4 towering humans pack quite a punch. The two saw them wearing strange armors that doesn't match any standard alliance hardsuits.

"I am councilor Donnell Udina and this is Admiral David Anderson of the Systems Alliance"

"Master chief spartan-117 and this is my team" Chief and everyone said giving a salute to Udina and Anderson. Anderson saw this and assumed they are soldiers and even their body language exhibited the militaristic fashion. Udina and Anderson returned the salute. Then Anderson was the first to speak.

"Chief, if I can call you like that?"

"That would be fine councilor"

"Very well then. You have got a massive ship with you and most of all, you didn't use a relay to get here" to which Chief didn't respond.

"And you call yourself spartans. what does that mean?" asked Anderson. There was a slight pause.

"We are soldiers trained for naval special operations" replied the Chief bluntly.

"I see. Now we will head to the council chambers. The other councilors wanted to meet you all and are already waiting for you. We will then discuss the matters" said Udina. The blue team gave a nod in response.

They all left the embassy hall and reached the council chambers in the presidium through the elevator. On their way, the blue team noticed lots of different aliens and even humans giving a bizarre look at them. But Chief and the others didn't care as they are already used to it. In UNSC all the civilians and even the ODSTs see spartans as freaks and reckless killing machines.

...

 **Council chambers...**

Finally they reached the council chambers. It was a huge open space with lot of audiences standing in the upper deck. The blue team, udina and Anderson walked from the elevator and stood at the end of the pathway. They all saw 3 councilors(1 asari, 1 turian, 1 salarian) standing in front and on top of what appears to be small tower. The blue team also saw captain Nylis and her 3 guards. They nodded at each other in acknowledgement.

Chief was still having a sense of danger in this place. He see a lot of people in the council chamber looking at them.

"Chief, you don't have to expect dangers all time" said Cortana in his head with a smirk.

"You will never know" said the Chief.

Cortana then convinced the Chief to play this soft to which he mentally sighed. The councilors saw 4 massive beings walking towards them. Out of the four, three had armors that looked different yet with the same architecture and a mild difference in textures and color density. The fourth person was different who stood 3" taller than them, wore a matte black armor of quite a different design while the outline was same as the other three armors. The black armor had a highly elegant and fluid architecture with lots of curves and bends. The armor also appeared whole from neck to toes instead of separate parts like the other three.

The councilors and the other audiences stared at the 4 massive figures intently. The councilors were mentally calculating the lvel of technology the armor might carry as they appeared no standard made.

The Asari councilor then spoke first and the other audiences remained silent.

"Thank you councilor Udina and Admiral for bringing them" said the asari councilor

"Greetings! I am councilor Tevos. This is turian councilor Sparatus and That is salarian councilor Valern" everyone nodded in acknowledgement.

"This meeting has been called upon the arrival of the strange massive ship to the citadel space unnoticed and its apparent owner, Master chief Petty Officer and his team"

"So chief, do you mind calling you like that?"

"No councilor"

"Fine. Captain Nylis told us everything regarding your first contact with them. She told everything about your ship, its arsenals and the technology it carries. It's a bit concerning"

Then the turian councilor decided to speak for the first time.

"What race do you represent, chief?" asked Sparatus.

"Humanity" replied the chief.

"But the alliance doesn't carry ships crossing the Farixen treaty limits and technology never before seen are being used by anyone. To be sure can you at least show your faces?" asked Valern speaking for the first time.

Chief and his friends were looking among each other and then decided to remove their helmets. Kelly, Fred and Linda removed their helmets and revealed their human faces, 2 female and 1 male. They look normal. However chief was quite reluctant because of his eyes. It may cause a stir in the situation. But to gain their trust, he knew there's nothing he can do other than do what they ask. Finally John removed his helmet and revealed his face. He had a short flat top brown hair cut with the sides shaved. His face was ghostly pale with some scars and rock chiseled. Anderson just by seeing his face found that this man had fought in wars for a really long time and also had taken a fair share of losses. But everyone were intrigued with Chief's yellow-orange Iris of the eyes and is faintly visible even amidst the ambient light. This made Chief to stand out in the group.

"Why does the Chief has different eyes? Yellow-orange? Should I have to believe that you are humans just by outward appearance?" asked Sparatus with his face widened in suspicion.

"We are humans, councilors. My eyes are just because of the specific genetic strain I carry. Nothing beyond that" said the Chief. If Chief could read Sparatus's expression, he knew that he didn't believe that.

"But C-sec captain Bailey's medical scan showed heavy augmentations that are in perfect violation of each and every citadel regulation concerning the bio-enhancements" said Tevos which caught the other two's attention.

"Augmentations? You mean artificial genetic enhancements?" asked Valern tensed. Citadel has lots regulations when it comes to bio- enhancements.

"Yes" replied Fred.

"Then you should know, that there several protocols to be followed concerning the genetic engineering. Your medical scan shows that you seemed to have been enhanced to act as a weapon. Ever thought about the repercussions?" asked Sparatus. Fred's eyes narrowed in confusion and turned to look at chief.

"Your armors, your weapons, it doesn't match any standard alliance designs and also your ship. It's massive and didn't use a mass relay to enter the citadel space. Why shouldn't we think that this is some alliance's secret science project?" said Tevos.

Anderson immediately stepped in and talked. "With all due respect councilors, Alliance was never involved in any project like bio-augmentation or the armor technology like these. We are so much in the dark just like you are"

"Even if we choose to believe you, a medical scan reported that these spartans were subjected to high level genetic augmentations, especially the Master chief. Reports indicate that his muscle fibers are strong enough to rip apart 2 krogans at a time and also these spartan's bones are near unbreakable. This is against every council protocols concerning biological augmentations" said Tevos

Fred, Kelly and Linda were surprised that the bio-enhancements were a moral problem even in this reality. They knew how the spartan II project caused a stir in the public. While posing strict laws for enhancements is a good thing to avoid illegal experimentation, The blue team found their views on body enhancements too weird because spartans were the result of contingency measure against the covenant and insurrection.

"Also they call themselves spartans and that they are special naval warfare group" Sparatus continued.

"Councilors, Why don't you ask the persons in question?" said Udina now everyone looking at the blue team

Chief mentally gave a sigh and started to speak after being flooded with questions.

"I can show you some unclassified video files regarding our history. I am sending you the video now. Keep your omni-tools open" said the Chief and immediately signaled Cortana to transmit the files to everyone in the council meeting. Suddenly their omni-tools flared up with a large display. What they saw next amazed everyone.

The video shows the origins of he United Nations after the WW2. Then humanity conquered the Luna followed by their settlement in the first outer planet, Mars in 2060. By 2080, humanity colonized all the Jupiter moons called as 'Jovian moons'. Then by 2160, political and economic tensions rising between Russian communists group formed by Vladimir koslov and Unified German groups called 'Frieden' regarding control for the Jovian moons called 'The Jovian Moon Campaign' which led to the fight between them in south America called the 'The Rain Forest Wars' in 2162. In this ensuing war, The United Nations Space Command was created in 2164. It was followed by fall of both the groups and thus the 'Treaty of Callisto' was signed between them on the moon Callisto.

In 2170, The Unified Earth Government was formed as a governing body for all the human colonies. Under UEG, Humanity colonized numerous exoplanets in outer solar systems. In the wake of 24th century, the first Faster Than Light travel was discovered by 2 UNSC scientists, Tobias Shaw and Wallace fujikawa called the 'Slipspace' in 2310. With that Several frigates, cruisers were manufactured and colonization of nearest exoplanets and planets in the distant star systems were effected giving rise to inner earth colonies and outer colonies. By 2490, Eight hundred planets were colonized by UNSC in the Orion arm of the Milky way, placing individual strongholds in all these planets. With this, the planet Reach became UNSC's primary naval yard and training academy base for humanity.

The 2490-2537 period suffered a big civil war called the 'The Insurrection'. Fights broke out between inner colonies and the outer colonies. When all seemed to slowly get under control, humanity faced its first dangerous enemy, 'The Covenant'. They are theocratic alliance between several species. Humanity's first contact with the covenant on Feb 3, 2525. In the first contact, they lost a whole planet, Harvest. This was the beginning of the 30 year Human-Covenant war. The Office of Naval Intelligence initiated the SPARTAN program under the banner 'ORION Project' but was soon abandoned as being cost ineffective. It was an effort to create biologically and cybernetically enhanced super soldiers. This was a course of action took by UNSC only to suppress the rebel wars in the inner and outer colonies, but soon became a tool of warfare in fighting the covenants. Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey was the brilliant mind behind the SPARTAN program.

The next video feed shocked everyone.

The Spartan-II program was initiated by doctor Halsey. For that, she had ONI agents kidnap several kids at age 6 from their homes that included the blue team members and replaced them with flash clones that would die one day of natural causes. Then these kids were trained in a distant facility by then trainer chief petty officer Franklin Mendez. His training was very harsh but the kids saw him as a father figure and Halsey as their mother. John-117 was among them. Everyone saw greatness in him. He was always special to Halsey. At age 14, they were subjected to Spartan-II augmentations where out of 75 only 33 survived with success. Then they were given their first MJOLNIR Mk IV armor and were deployed in Eridanus to suppress the rebels. But it was then they encountered the covenants. Though few in numbers they turned the tide of the human-covenant war but not without losing a fair share. Covenant hunted down humanity planet after planet to the edge of extinction. Everyone in the council chambers saw humans brutally killed with no difference b/w men, women and children. This horror made most to weep in sorrow.

Then they saw John-117 fighting war after war from 2525, losing friends, those under his command he cared the most, still never giving up and rise even more strong to crush the enemy. Then videos of the forerunner artifacts found by them, fall of Reach, battle of halo-04, battle of earth, battle of halo-05, War with the flood parasite, Battle of Ark and humanity's victory in the 30 years war, breaking up of covenant, humanity's alliance with the sanghelli separatists, their eventual rise again as a galactic power. Followed by battle of requiem with the return and death of a rogue forerunner.

...

With this, the video feed ended. The 4 councilors, Anderson and everyone in the meeting remained silent for quite sometime. They couldn't believe what they saw. They don't even now whether to believe this or not as they are total unknowns, even a video evidence is hard to believe. Anderson on the other hand though had his own suspicions, still he took their video for real evidence. As the earth never experienced anything like this and even their humanity is unlike anything they had seen. If that was true, They he really felt respect for those battle hardened veterans. The 4 spartans being alienated to them was more than enough for Anderson to believe their stories.

"Chief, Let's just say I believe it, but there's an issue that doesn't make any sense. The current year is 2185. But the videos show events up to 2557. How's that possible? Or the right question is, Are you spartans from the future? Even then, there were no such thing called covenants, forerunners or this UNSC in the MilkyWay" Asked Tevos with seriousness in her face. She even got slightly irritated if the 4 unknown were in fact playing them.

"No we are not from the future, madam councilor" replied Linda.

"This can mean only one thing. They must have forged it up. These UNSC must be some rogue human faction hiding from our sights and now decided to show up to fuel their agenda" said Sparatus still in disbelief.

"Your disbelief is not our problem" said Chief plain and simple.

"But take a look at their technology, That could be made as a justification" said Valern with his fingers over his chin.

"Your councilor is right" suddenly came a female voice out of nowhere. Then chief opened his right palm and out came Cortana's AI avatar smiling and jumped out to grow in to a normal human size. Everyone was stunned to see the holographic avatar of a young girl with circuits in her body.

"Hello, I'm UNSC AI CTN0452-9. You can call me Cortana"

"What th-...You have brought an AI with you!? Into the Citadel!?" yelled Sparatus. The Councilors were already briefed of this AI housed in their ship and it's nothing like an AI they have ever seen. Tevos was tensed a bit kept her head cool. Anderson and Udina started to fear the situation is getting out of control.

"Are you mad!?" Sparatus yelled again

"Chief, AIs are prohibited in this galaxy and for breaking this law, you will suffer the same way like the quarians" said Tevos. The blue team were slightly tensed as Chief felt the situation is getting out of their hand. If they are threatened, they don't have any weapons with them. But they have a few tricks up their sleeve to stun their asses.

"First, I have a name. Use it to refer me. Is that clear?!" said Cortana in a pressing tone. Others were shocked to see the AI interacting like a human. The other audiences in the chamber raised their eyebrows at the sight of the AI that looked more like a human, with digital line flowing through her despite her naked appearance.

"Second, We know about your war with the AI race you call the 'Geth' created by the 'Quarians'. I'm not like them. Perhaps, its the quarian's fault to create AIs with networked intelligence which is always a problem. Networked programs have higher processing power and greater learning capacity. Geth are not some individual robots, but a single hive mind in several bodies"

But Sparatus was out of his element and the anger muzzled out of his bird head.

"I don't care what you say AI!...GUARDS!" yelled Sparatus which shocked Tevos, Valern, Udina and Anderson. Suddenly citadel guards surrounded the spartans with their weapons raised at them. The spartans and Cortana were wondering why these people use unnecessary violence when there was no need for it.

"Your weapons cant take them out" Cortana said casually. The 4 spartans weren't afraid of that as they had fought lots of covenant surrounded them like this far outnumbered. The councilors were surprised with their casual behavior with no fear for what lies in front of them. The next thing they saw terrified everyone in the council chamber.

Chief gave a 'Go Ahead' nod to his team. The three quickly raised their hands and a MA5D gauss assault rifle came out and assembled out of no where from a small blue energy portal like field. Immediately they raised their rifles towards the C-sec guards who were stunned with what the spartans did. The spartan's suit had miniature slipspace containers that can store extra arms and ammo in the specified slipspace coordinates. Chief didn't take his weapon as this show off was more than enough to catch them off guard. Udina and Anderson snapped out of the miracle they saw and finally spoke up to ease the situation.

"Councilors, I don't think there's a need for violence in this situation. Clearly you saw what they did. A weapon appeared in their hands out of nowhere like magic and god knows what tricks still they hold up their sleeve" said Udina in a yelling voice. The 3 councilors were having their jaws dropped at what they saw. Sparatus though angry, was slowly getting tensed of these spartans. No one in this galaxy has done something like what these spartans did. But he acted tough anyway.

"Chief, Ask your team to lower their weapons and surrender your AI to us. Also you will be taken for further interrogation" said Sparatus that only got a chuckle from Cortana. She knew Sparatus was simply playing tough to keep the situation under their control.

"Councilors, you will seriously regret that" said Chief that made councilors paralyzed. But Valern and Tevos were smart enough.

"Sparatus, Udina's right. There's no need for violence. Perhaps don't make another first contact with new humans messy like it happened along time before" said Tevos and Valern nodded in approval. Then Tevos signaled the guards to leave. The spartans lowered their guard. Sparatus didn't like this and was infuriated.

"Chief, what was that your friends did. How did a weapon came out of no where?" asked Tevos. Chief decided to give the real answer as he figured out that this reality's people think that's a magic realizing their technological inferiority. Cortana felt what he was thinking and agreed to this.

"That's a slipspace container, where we store our arms" said Chief and continued by Cortana.

"And that's the same we use for faster than light travel"

"Like the portal your ship used to enter the citadel space!?" asked Anderson in shock. The councilors were dumbstruck with the fact that these people are using a separate region of space for FTL and storing items. They felt like they were watching a sci-fi movie.

"Exactly and the UNSC use lots and lots of AI like me" replied Cortana

"They are an integral part of our society and your bad history with the geth is not our problem" said Kelly out cold.

Tevos and Valern were thinking about their conversation where as sparatus was still suspicious.

"Ok, but you hadn't yet explained where you are from. If you don't belong to any of us, provided the only surprise is that you are humans" said Tevos.

"As you asked before, we are from the year 2557. But not from this Milky way" said Chief. The others failed the grasp the meaning of 'THIS'.

"So, you are from different galaxy following different time standards? but still that poses another question?" asked Valern where Udina picked up.

"Yes, of course. Humanity were born in Milky way. Then how it's possible for us to exist simultaneously in another galaxy with out being transported from here, something which didn't happen to my knowledge?"

There was a slight pause. Then Chief spoke up.

"We are neither from the past nor another galaxy. We are from another universe" replied the Chief. There was absolute silence in the chambers. If the spartan could read the turian face expression, he was incredulously looking at them in disbelief.

"What? First you showed us something and now you are telling, you are from another reality! It's like hearing a movie vid and I'm not buying it!" said the turian annoyed even more.

"Chief, I take it your people are from an unknown faction evident from the technology you carry. Another galaxy? Okay. But another universe? Do we look like stupids to you?" asked Tevos raising her eye brow in disbelief.

"Chief, please tell the truth or I will be the one facing the music afterwards as you are all humans and I, being a human councilor" pleaded Udina. Anderson was quiet all the time, his mind in utter surprise. This is not something he used to see everyday. Chief traded looks with his friends and at last with cortana who gave a smirk. Valern was thinking meanwhile suddenly dragged by the researches made by ancient salarian scientists a 1000 years back regarding alternate realities and parallel universes. Finally he spoke up.

"No respective councilors. A 1000 years back, our scientists did some research on possible existence of alternate universes. Originally they were trying to solve, why all the matter dominates this universe with no trace of even residual anti-matter that was once in higher number during the big-bang. They thought that anti-matter could have left our space to form another universe. But, that was soon dropped as they couldn't find any evidence for that...Until now" said Valern. Everyone were staring at him in shock.

"Actually, the same goes in our reality too. We don't come from an anti-matter universe like you said. What your scientists spoke is that a universe separated only by space. But we come from a universe that is separated by space-time and probability. Our universe never had anything like what your universe has" explained Cortana. This gave Valern a better understanding of who they are.

Tevos was simply staring at the AI. She was stunned to see the AI looking more human in appearance and it's behavior and humor are too similar to a human. Even the geth being AI are not this alive. Sparatus still nodded in dis-agreement. Udina figured much from the AI and Valern's conversation that the spartans were indeed from another universe.

"If you are from another universe, What business do you have here? How did you get here?" asked Sparatus with annoyance and feeling ridiculed for asking such a question.

"Now that is the right question councilor" said Chief. Cortana then brought a hologram of the artificial portal they used to get here. Everyone were staring at it.

"In our universe, we found this strange artifact which is an artificial portal created by some unknown. From our universe time scale, this artifact was emitting a strange signal for more than a 100,000 years measured from the readings. We were sent to investigate it. The portal was highly stable to carry any number of ships. But the portal's gravitational field was too powerful and we got caught in it. After we exited on the other side, we found we landed on the same galaxy, but not ours anymore" explained Cortana with out giving out full information. Part of what she said was forged by her.

"Did these forerunners you mentioned in the video built it?" asked Tevos.

"No, it's a lot more ancient than them and honestly, we don't know anything about it other than it pulled us into another universe" said Cortana.

"With all due respect Tevos, do you believe these people? What if they are some rogue faction we don't know, waiting to strike us during our shut eyes?" asked Sparatus. This started to annoy the spartans and Cortana.

"There is one way to find out. We can have an asari to perform a mind meld with Master chief to confirm this theory" said Tevos. Valern accepted this. Now Fred, Kelly and Linda were tensed.

"What if they forge the events?" asked Sparatus in suspicion.

"Asari can tell whether the memories are true or mere creation" explained Tevos. Thanks to the promethean augmentation, the promethean nano bots in the brain can be given command to lock down the specific portion of the memories or transfer it to deep sub-conscious layers.

"You mean the asari's way of telepathy!?" asked Fred

"Yes. I'll have captain Nylis to perform the meld" said Tevos. Then she called Nylis and asked her to come to the council chamber. After 10 minutes, she reached the council chambers and watched everyone looking at her. She also saw the spartans and that AI surprisingly in a grown up sized form. She could see that the meeting had not yet over.

"Councilors" saluted Nylis. She haven't seen the spartans face and got to catch a glimpse and looked young and energetic. But Chief's face was the most intriguing thing. He had a chiseled rectangular face with short brown flat top hair and his eyes iris?...It was a mild yellow orange which is an unlikely color for any species and she took a step back after seeing it wondering the possibility. Then her thoughts were broken by the councilor's voice.

"Nylis, I called you here for an important job. The spartans and their AI have explained everything about them. She then explained to Nylis everything what the spartans told. Even she felt overwhelmed with the information.

"Let me guess. You want to perform a mind meld with the Chief to confirm it?" asked Nylis sensing where the conversation is going.

"Yes and you are one of the few I trust the most. So I ask you to do it, so that the issue may be settled" said Tevos. Nylis thought for a moment. Even if it's a great gift, still it tires one's mind. But she accepted it any way.

"I will do it" said Nylis. Linda, Fred and Kelly were tensed at this. They already learned about asari mind meld. They feared, she would see everything. But John's gotta surprise for him.

"But I need the proper consent from the person I wish to meld" said Nylis. The three spartans and Cortana turned to face the Chief.

"I will allow the captain to do it" said Chief. Nylis nodded and walked near him.

"Now that you have he consent you sought, why don't you begin?" said Sparatus. Nylis nodded in approval.

She then held Chief's hand. "Chief, take a deep breath and clear your mind...and embrace eternity" said Nylis but suddenly she felt a slight pain in her head and all she saw was void engulfing her mind, she felt as if she was overloaded. Immediately she broke the connection and took a heavy breath. The councilors were terrified as Nylis collapsed to the floor. Udina immediately picked her up. Except Chief, others were equally surprised at what happened.

"Captain, are you all right?" asked Udina to which she nodded yes.

"What the hell just happened!?" asked Sparatus.

"That wasn't suppose to happen" said Tevos in shock. Nylis spoke staggering.

"His mind...It's something else...I only saw a void that engulfed my own mind before I collapsed. His mind is able to resist my psychic intrusion. It's unlikely for a human and unlikely for anyone" said Nylis.

'Wha-?..But how?" asked Valern with eyes widened.

"My augmentations are unique. I have the ability to resist any intrusion. But I can allow it at will" said Chief. But only because of the unique promethean ability. If not for that, Nylis would have succeeded.

"Captain Nylis? Can do it again now?" asked Chief. She's frustrated as melding requires great deal of stamina. Anyhow she accepted. She again held the Chief hands and started the meld, but this she succeeded. She saw flooded memories of the spartan. She realized that chief is a warrior. She also witnessed every single incident she was explained by the councilors. But unknown to her, Chief locked some portions of the memories away. Finally she released herself. She looked at the councilors.

"Nylis?" called Tevos.

"It's not forged. Everything they said is absolutely true" said Nylis. This relieved everyone. Though Sparatus still suspicious, he took the asari's word for it. Now that the situation had been settled, Udina was very eager to ask this question.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Udina. The spartans themselves expected this question from these people.

"Until we find our way home, we are struck here" said the Cortana

"Regarding that what have you planned on doing in this reality?" asked Tevos.

"Certainly, this is something new we had ever encountered" said Sparatus.

This is when Udina got very much tempted to recruit these spartans in to the Alliance. He thought by recruiting them, the alliance could learn and replicate the UNSC technology. With that, Humanity could leap forward to centuries and become one of the most powerful races in the galaxy and Udina was not ready to let this opportunity slip by.

But not only him, The councilors were discussing among them regarding what to do with the spartans. If they join the council, They can get their hands on the technology they possess and there's no telling what will happen next, Council can dominate the galaxy. Sparatus was interested in learning the weapons both carried by their ship and by them. This will make the turians an unstoppable force both in terms of fleet strength and soldiers. Tevos was interested in the spartans, their armors and augmentations especially with that of the master chief. Valern was interested in the concept of 'slipspace'. Being not only a powerful FTL travel method, but also they don't have the limitations of the mass relays. And the next thing is these powerful ancient race they call as 'Forerunners'. From what the spartans had shown them, Their technological advancements have no boundaries for they managed to construct artificial planets, rings they call halo array of massive size, A space station equivalent to the size of the Jupiter. If the salarian STG can get more information on them, they could do lots of researches to try replicating them, at least one of the many. But if there's one thing everyone were interested, it's the AI Cortana. They wished to study her to make their own versions of AIs more effectively. It might be a widely known fact that the citadel had ban the use of AIs. But if there could exist an AI as human as it looks without hiccups, then they should do it with out letting others know.

"There might be no UNSC in this reality, But we are still bound to its protocols"

"So what have you decided, Chief?" asked Valern with eagerness. But the Spartan's decision was a total disappointment for everyone.

"We thereby will not interfere with the council's business and will stay neutral. This is not even our place, so we'll will remain isolated until we find a way back. But we are soldiers and its always been our duty to protect humanity which we will do the same here and also we'll help the other races too if the circumstances really wanted our interference" said the Chief in a clear commanding voice to which his friends nodded in approval. Anderson found it intimidating.

He respects the spartan's decision of being a soldier and protect the galaxy even when not belonging to it. His face started to frown slightly, thinking that if Shepard had met the Spartans, With their technology and power, spartans would have aided him in taking down the collectors. He would have never needed the help of the cerberus. But Anderson knew that he is past that and had already joined the cerberus. But at least he could ask for help in the future regarding this issue.

"But, what would you gain by being isolated? You wont have access to any of the resources. Being a part of the council will get you lot of privileges. A mutual trade could do just fine" said Tevos trying to tempt the spartans to join them. But the spartan's reply was negative and a straight shot in to the councilor's face.

"That's very generous of you, but no. We are here by accident and by no means we are gonna take sides. Besides, we spartans are trained especially for ultra high risk operations. Working with you will be productive for neither of us. Our way of leading ourselves is totally distinct from yours" said the Chief after a slight pause. This was a total disappointment to the councilors. But Chief anticipated this kind of moves.

"We are not extremists or bigotry as many of you would think, but that's not the truth. We are enemies to no one and like we said, our presence is not under your jurisdiction and we'll stay neutral and not interfere in your affairs, that includes trading of any of our technologies" said Fred clearly making a statement.

The councilors frowned at their decision of not joining them. Chief and his team then put on their helmets.

"But we assure, you wont have any problems from our side. But if we are threatened? Hm, they are certainly welcomed to try" said the Chief in deep tone which sent chill in everyone's spine as these were not petty threats. The spartans mean it.

"That seems like a threat! You WILL NOT start a fight under our watch!" yelled Sparatus.

"We never intend to" replied Kelly.

"Well enough. But still you are new to our place and it's our regulations by which we must keep an eye on the new comers" said Udina.

"Yes and one more thing spartans. As you had decided to join neither galactic party. You should know that you will live here at your own risk. There are many organizations and unlawful mercs that will try to get their hands on you and if that happens? You will receive no aid from us" said Tevos. The spartans felt offended yet they expected this statement from them, but also understood as they knew how they abandoned the quarians and also the fact that the spartans don't need their help and that it's the other way around.

"We understand that councilors" replied Linda.

"Very well. Then let's make a deal. Send captain Nylis T'Halyt with us. She could serve aboard our ship and report our actions to you in a timely basis" said Cortana to which the blue team accepted. The councilors thought for a moment and decided to take their request as they saw no harm in it. It would also help gain confidence that their decisions had not brought any problems to their head.

"What do you say Nylis? Are you willing to do this?" asked Tevos. Nylis thought for a moment and then accepted the offer.

"Then it's done gentlemen. Wait for the spartans in the docking bay Nylis, while they have a short tour in the citadel" said Tevos

"Thank you councilors" said the Chief

"Then this meeting is disbanded. You may go spartans" said the turian councilor and with that, everyone left the place. Anderson escorted the Blue team back to his office while Udina told that he had to talk with the councilors in private. Nylis made her way to the docking bay.

...

 **Human embassy...**

Back in the embassy, The blue team and Admiral Anderson relaxed themselves a bit after facing the music for 2 hours. Anderson's might not have a good day, but it didn't turn into something worse. When the spartans revealed themselves that they are indeed humans and when the council accused them for developing illegal weapons, Anderson thought that his day could any worse. He knew even if the humans were given a seat in the council, They other councilors always worked hard to find a loophole to berate humanity. Today's incidents could have been a great catalyst for that. But by god's grace, that never happened and the spartans managed to make the councilors believe them.

"That was one hell of a committee. For a moment, I thought that humanity had to face another big war after Shanxi. But thanks to you, whoever you are, left the council with many other after thoughts" said Anderson after sighed in relief.

The spartans and Cortana had read about the battle of Shanxi where the human first contact with the turians ended up pretty much like the Human-Covenant war, but on lesser magnitude. That incident left a scar on both the sides and if not for the council, that might have got worse.

"We read about this council in the codex before we headed here" said Kelly.

"Then you must have known their die hard habit of occasionally ditching those who asked for help" said Anderson mildly irate. The spartans can understand his frustration as they had read about the council and their attitude. They only wanted to hold on to their power.

"How the people of this galaxy tolerate their rudeness? Are all of them like this?" asked Fred.

"Well, not everyone. Only 10 in millions like these people. No matter what, I don't admonish them completely. At times of crisis, they made critical decisions in the past that keeps this galaxy spinning without trouble even today. But-..."

"But still they want others to play ball with them and wanted the galaxy under their control" finished Chief to which Anderson nodded.

"I can even cite an example where the Council abandoned humanity when they should have considered the problem seriously" said Anderson walking over the balcony with his hands on the back. The spartans seemed to get interested with the way he said that.

"What do you have in your mind?, Sir" asked the Linda seeing the trouble in Anderson's face. He turned to face the spartans, sighed and then spoke.

"For the past two years, a mysterious race called the collectors were targeting human colonies. So far they have abducted a large number of our people from 6 colonies in total. Only few have witnessed their presence and few even talk about it"

The blue team and Cortana were blinking as they had never heard of the collectors in the codex, but this had piqued their interest very much.

"What do these collectors want from humans?" asked Linda.

"So far, we know next to nothing about the collectors or their intentions. But their targets for 2 years had only been humans"

"Is anyone looking into that issue?" asked Chief.

"Commander Shepard of the systems alliance navy is the only person who's looking into this. Hell! I wanted to help him, but both the alliance command and the council had my hands tied" Anderson said this with a frustration.

"Wait. I've come across that name in the codex. Isn't he the first human spectre? Also we heard that he's kind of a galactic hero who saved the citadel and the council from a ship called sovereign 2 years back" asked Cortana from chief's helmet. He looked at Chief trying to find the source of the voice, but he found out that it was that AI the spartans had brought with them. Chief then lifted his right form arm and opened his palm only for Cortana to appear above.

Anderson nodded in acknowledgement. Chief also read about this Shepard. He's is really impressed with his records. His solo stand against the invaders of skyllian blitz, his heroic acts in saving the citadel and the council gained quite a respect from him.

"Why no one's helping him?" asked Chief.

"It's because he's working for a covert human centric group called the 'Cerberus' to take down the collectors. They are a rogue faction of humanity who commits nothing but crimes in the name of humanity's greater good. But it's not Shepard's fault. The council denied him help calling the collectors as myth. But cerberus is committed in stopping these collectors"

"Just how much of a threat are these collectors?" asked Fred

"They are a threat to everyone, that's for sure. But shepard found that even they are just an indoctrinated servants to the most dangerous race called the 'Reapers'"

Blue team and Cortana were stunned to hear this. It had only been a while they heard about the collectors and the name 'Reapers' confused them even more. But Chief felt something in his mind when he heard the name reapers as if the worse was waiting to happen in the future.

"Reapers!?" asked Cortana in mild confusion.

"Reapers are the ancient sentient race of machines who are a threat to this whole galaxy. Shepard is the only one who had seen them, talked to them and even helped in killing one of them"

This was a critical information for them as they have learned of a new race that threatens the galaxy. The Spartans slowly felt a connection between their actual mission and this Reaper threat.

"On one of our colonies, Eden prime, Shepard encountered a prothean beacon. The beacon filled his mind with visions of chaos and destructions. Then on planet virmire, he encountered another beacon which gave him a clear message. The beacons are set up by protheans as a warning for the reaper threat. The protheans were wiped out by the reapers 50,000 years ago. They made sure that future races would be careful. Shepard after becoming a spectre was tasked to hunt down another rogue turian spectre named Saren Arterius who was in control of a flag ship named 'Sovereign'. At first everyone thought it was a geth dreadnought ship. But only shepard knew the truth"

"What truth?" asked Kelly

"That the sovereign is an actual reaper"

The spartans and Cortana never expected this. They couldn't believe that the reapers had already tried to invade the galaxy.

"What? But the images in the codex showed sovereign as nothing more than a big ship looking like a cuttle fish!" said Cortana.

"Huh, It's not a ship, Cortana. That's a reaper in the size of a ship. If not for Shepard, they would have obliterated the galaxy 2 years back. But the council is too blind to see this truth. They call the reapers as myth and nothing more than a Saren's make up to cover his crimes. I'm afraid this truth will die with Shepard and reapers are going to give us a big surprise in the future." Anderson said in a sad tone.

"But right now, the reapers are not an issue. The collectors are" Anderson said.

Chief, his friends and Cortana finally got a clear picture now which didn't make any sense right from the beginning. Now they almost know why they were sent in to this reality to help this galaxy. The librarian wanted to save this galaxy from the potential threat of the 'Reapers'. Chief determined himself that he will make sure they succeed in this mission. The one other thing they had to find is who built that portal that brought them here.

"Chief, I think-" said Linda before being cut by chief

"I know" said Chief nodded in acknowledgement.

"Don't worry admiral. We said we would never interfere in anyone's affairs. but we are still soldiers and have duty. We will look out for these collector attacks and make sure the human colonies are safe" said the Chief which surprised the Admiral. He never expected this generosity. He was quite amazed with the spartans sense of dutifulness and good sense of justice.

"Thank you Chief. There's nothing one could ask for more than your non-obligatory help" said Anderson with a smile to which Chief slightly nodded.

"One last thing. What ever you said to the councilors and all those things you showed them?...Are they real?" asked Anderson with a smirk. The spartans looked at him tilting their heads, let an evasive smile. Cortana folded her hands and nodded disapprovingly.

"Whatever we said are true. Thought you believed us" shrugged Chief.

"I do. If you never had those technologies or that out of proportion ship, surely somebody would have taken you for borderline insane and got an admission in the asylum" replied Anderson with a cocky smile.

"Though I should say that you people were inducted into the life of military at 6 when you should be enjoying your lives. Aren't you bothered by it, by all those horrendous procedures you were subjected to?" asked Anderson who had this issue lingering his mind. Cortana's face turned despondent as she didn't want to talk about this. When she and John began working together, Cortana learned what had been done to the kids and vehemently hated for what happened to them. From that day forth, she became more protective of John and had a soft corner over the spartan IIs in general.

"Many would call that immoral, but at times such as those, people go for the unconventional tactics as a last resort. We don't regret this, instead see a chance to be more than just human and be the front line defense of humanity" replied Fred to which John, Kelly and Linda looked at him and acknowledged his point with little pride.

Anderson didn't know anything about this, but he expected a response like this from them as soldiers. After all, that's what every soldier have in his mind. The cause they were fighting for.

"Well, I don't mean to pry. If I were in that situation, I would have done the same. No matter how you fight, A soldiers death make sure the safety of the thousands" said Anderson. The spartans and Cortana looked at the admiral with a considerable level of respect. The spartans acknowledged his statement and those were words from the mouth of a soldier who have had his fair share of the days.

"Alright, let's not dwell much into that. Until you figure a way to get back to your place, have a nice day" cheered the Admiral.

"Thank you sir, Admiral" saluted Chief. Anderson smiled and nodded.

"And by the way, This citadel is a big place. Feel free to roam and there are a lot of exciting things you could check out, provided you guyz are interested. Not to mention the C-sec got their eyes on you and the public stare" said Anderson while getting to his table to work with the personal terminal.

"Sure we will" replied Kelly for which the others looked at her. She knew the meaning of that gaze but didn't mind it.

The spartans then left the embassy. Cortana managed to get them the map, hence it was easy for them to pick the correct route.

The blue team left the area, grabbed a sky-car and left to C-sec HQ.

...

There they met C-Sec security and science officers to get back their weapons. The officers who had been analyzing the weapons were stunned with its operation and design. Limited ammo but deadly. They were shocked to see directed energy weapons and plasma weapons which are thought to be infeasible and impossible.

To operate their rifles with directed energy would mean extensive use of Eezo core that would also be inefficient and they don't have enough cooling power to convect the heat out. Even the Gauss technology they use in projectile weapons were found to use lots of power and thus more heat generation. Still, the weapons had a great cooling unit which the officers didn't understand.

The blue team watched the officers having a tough time figuring out the weapon's efficient functionality. They were waiting patiently until the breaking point.

"Alright, we need those back" said Chief standing behind a human officer who was trembled to see a 7'3" massive figure behind.

"Well, of course, I don't think we would need this anymore" said the officer stumbling and got out of the way. Then he passed the weapons to his friends and took his own. After holstering the weapons, Chief and his friends got their weapons back and used an elevator to get to the docking bay.

There Nylis was waiting for them.

"So, how did the meeting go?" asked Nylis.

"Just as usual. I think we can leave this place" said Chief to which she nodded.

Chief waved his hand at the asari to get her inside the pelican. Then he flew the pelican into Dawn. Inside the ship, Sentinels started moving here and there on Cortana's commands and the huragoks went to the engine room. Chief, his team and the asari went to the bridge. Chief sat on the captain's seat and put Cortana back into the pedestal.

Now that the important phase of the plan had been done and done, it was time for them to enact the next stage, that is finding a suitable place to live.

"Cortana, first we need to set up a base. Look for any habitable, uncolonized planets" said Chief

"I've already done it Chief" said Cortana bringing up a hologram of the Milky way in front of him. Then she marked a cluster just below the galactic rim. Then it zoomed to a star system. It consists of a G-class star similar to SOL sun with 4 planets orbiting it. The 2nd planet is exactly at the same distance as earth.

"This is a system in the Titan nebula similar to our SOL. There are 4 planets orbiting a G-class star with the 2nd one being habitable" then Cortana zoomed towards the planet.

"But that system is in the terminus region and also you dont find anyone in there" said Nylis.

"That's exactly what we need. The planet's 1.35 times the size of earth, 1.3 times the gravity, correct position from the star to support life" said Cortana

"What about the atmosphere, resources?" asked Chief.

"Pressure at the surface-1.3 bars, temperature below the equator is 23 degC. Planet has a rich Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere which means, we can see lots of floras and faunas. Also traces of other gases just like earth"

"Perfect for sustaining life" said the Chief

"What's the ETA from here?" asked Linda

"It's 35,000 light years from the mass relay data" said Cortana

"4-5 relay transitions has to made. In conventional FTL, It will take centuries for us" said Nylis.

"What's the maximum output of our slipspace drive?" asked Chief

"The forerunner crystal can be stressed to maximun effectiveness of 25,000 light years a day but after that, a full scale maintenance would be required or else we would run into a serious trouble"

Nylis was stunned and couldn't believe what she heard "What! you can do that much distance in a day!?" asked Nylis in shock as their FTL will take centuries to reach it. She had already seen the slipspace functions in Chief's mind during the meld to prove the council that he's telling the truth. But it never occurred to her that it was highly efficient.

"Yes and it will take approximately 32 hrs to reach that planet." finished Cortana

"Then do it. Team, let's get ourselves a new base of operations" said Chief. Cortana smiled at chief, and then entered the coordinates to that planet. The dawn after leaving a safe distance from the citadel, performed the slipspace jump.

 **...  
**

 **Don't forget to review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I donot own Halo or Mass effect.**

 **Chapter 6: Face your new enemy**

After 32 hrs, The Dawn exited the slipspace nearby the planet they identified in the Titan nebula. The ship is facing the edge of planet's bright side. It was a pleasing view.

"Status report?" asked Chief

"The propulsion engines doing good, but the slipspace drive" told Linda not amused with the readings, which then was continued by Cortana. She appeared from the pedestal.

"The slipspace drive need some maintenance Chief. The huragoks are on it. We pushed it too hard. We are not gonna use it until the huragoks are done" finished cortana. That was quite bad news for the crew as they cannot do FTL for sometime. Chief sighed at this.

"Look at the planet!" said Fred seeing through the glass window. Everyone looked at it. The planet reminded John of Eridanus even though he lost most of its memories. The crew were stunned with its beauty.

"Cortana, before we land, I need full details on this planet" said Chief. The crew already saw the beautiful planet from the bridge's glass window.

Captain Nylis after becoming the captain of the fourth fleet, she had traveled to almost every star cluster and participated in missions, even the terminus. But, as terminus systems are not under citadel jurisdiction, she only had limited access to it. She was surprised to see that a planet so rich in resources hadn't been found by anyone for a long time. She's also not amused with the idea of these outsiders mining its resources.

"Chief, the planet has higher amounts of iridium, osmium, rhodium, gold, palladium, platinum, titanium, magnesium...even more. Also different salts of nitrates, phosphates, sulphates, perchlorates, several hydrocarbons both aliphatic and aromatic. We also have radioactive elements like Uranium-238, plutonium, curium, neptinium, thorium, radon and many more" said cortana then bringing up atmospheric data.

"As for the atmosphere, It's same as earth. We have all the gases including the inert ones"

"Fine. But we need to find the right spot where we don't have to burn down trees and disrupt the ecosystem" said the chief

"Actually there's one, in the south east region 100kms below the equator. The 400 mile radius is composed of only rocks. That's a best spot" said cortana marking the spot in the hologram..

"Wait! Chief, you need to understand that this planet is in the terminus systems. This region of galaxy is not under the jurisdiction of the citadel" said Nylis seriously.

"So do we" said Kelly turning to Nylis which slightly irritated her.

"I am not gonna let you outsiders to exploit our resources! This is our galaxy! You just cant claim yourself a planet without the authorization of the council" yelled Nylis which was a little troubling to them. Chief stood out of his seat and started talking to her. Though Nylis was clear with her message, insider her mind, she regretted for yelling at a massive figure. There was a slight pause. Cortana and the team members were looking at chief as to what he's gonna say.

"First, We come from the same Milky Way. Second, You yourself said that this region doesn't fall under the citadel's watch. Third, I've seen your council's way of dealing with 'Requests'" said Chief in a tough deep tone that sent slight fear to Nylis.

"You know nothing of our council. They help everyone in need!" yelled Nylis when chief verbally assaulted the council.

"Then what about the council's denial to help the alliance soldier named Shepard to fight the collectors?" asked chief raising his tone. Nylis was awestruck with his question and there was a silence. She never thought this man knew about commander Shepard or the collectors.

"Who told you that!?" asked Nylis in annoyance.

"A nice man in the citadel told me that" replied Chief without giving out Anderson's name. Others were looking at them as if to be prepared to stop them if the situation gets more meaner than a mere conversation.

"Collectors are just myths! No one has seen them!" yelled Nylis.

"Yes, because humans are the only one suffering their onslaught! Would you say the same if it were your people? I have heard the way council treat the humanity. They may have a spot in the council chamber, but never among them" said Cortana deciding to interfere this time. Chief, his friends and Nylis looked at her. Nylis was shocked to see an AI reasoning for humanity. Now she really feels hard to find words to speak. Chief and the others had read the codex and learned about each and every incident including the battle of citadel in 2183. Even after Shepard chose to save the council in humanity's place, there were not that much grateful.

"Humans are arrogant!" said Nylis in a pressing tone and anger. Chief saw her and spoke after a sigh.

"Listen captain, We had read about the terminus sector and how council doesn't interfere or even give a damn about what goes here. So, technically, you can't reveal this information and even if you did? The council won't interfere. So save your energy" replied the Chief in a calm voice.

Kelly, Fred, Linda and Cortana too kept themselves cool. They are spartans, quickly adapt to new knowledge and situation. They knew that while trying to establish a base, they might face such a hindrance from anyone. That's why Cortana chose a fertile world in the galactic border.

Nylis stared at the spartans but she herself knew that what Chief said was true. If they choose to live in the terminus, then they do it at their own risk, something that was clearly stated by the councilors themselves.

"That's right. So basically, This place don't even belong to you. Besides, we need a place to settle down and we are not gonna terraform this whole planet as you would think. We are just gonna put a base down there" said Fred.

"Listen chief, it might be hard for you accept. But, there are no collectors. That's the truth and you will see to it" said nylis to which chief nodded in disapproval.

"This galaxy is ignorant of the coming storm" thought the chief and changed the subject.

"Cortana, we'll setup the base in that region. I'm seeing large hills. It's a good hideout"

"Yes chief. I'll send sentinel constructors, assemblers and retrievers to get the job done. I've finished the designs and the sentinels are uploaded with the design data. They will finish the base in 25 days"

"What are these sentinels?" asked nylis in confusion.

"Sentinels are forerunner constructs that are designed for specific purpose. These are usually controlled by AIs. They do a variety of work ranging from guarding a place or an object to terraforming a planet" replied cortana. Nylis had her eyes widened after learning about the sentinels. She already saw the information about fore-runners, their technology and capability both in the video and meld. Nylis thought of giving the datas regarding sentinels to the asari command and council. She couldn't imagine the possibilities. The asari can build one like these to colonize planets easily. But she knew next to nothing about them.

"But how are you in possession of those? Aren't these created by the ones you call forerunners who now don't exist in your reality. Without them, there's no way you could get these" said nylis wondering how the spartans got a working forerunner tech in possession.

"Those are highly classified" was the plain response from chief.

"If you give us the datas about these sentinels, The galaxy could benefit a lot from it" said nylis trying to convince the spartans.

"We already told you we'll not share our potential technologies we possess" said Linda in a way nylis heard it right. Nylis was slightly frowned at this reply but was confident that she will succeed sometime after and decided not to stir up the situation.

"Chief the sentinels are deployed. The retrievers will mine the resources and constructors, assemblers will build the base in 25 days" cortana said

"In the mean time. what do you suggest cortana? asked chief

"How about we find another planet and have a nice stroll in the beach!" said fred turning to everyone relaxed and amused. Others were staring at him. Actually linda and kelly liked that idea. Chief didn't respond to it while nylis remained silent.

"You are awfully relaxed fred!" said cortana with her arms crossed. Then suddenly kelly spoke up when a new display popped up in her terminal.

"Chief! i'm picking up a transmission...its from the comm-bouy besides the mass relay in the nearby system" said kelly after she saw the display on her terminal showing the raw data.

"Who is it?" asked chief

"Isolating and clearing up the signal" said cortana. Then everyone heard a broken transmission with lots of static which sounded more human.

" _Th...is...liet...nt...jam...ga...from...th...co..ny..fehl prime...th...collectors...th..re attac...ng us...we request...lp..._ "

"It's not clear. But i heard something like fehl prime and collectors." said the chief

"Fehl prime!? that's a human colony in this terminus" said nylis in slight shock. But even she heard the transmission say 'collectors'. She started to have doubts regarding their presence and thought that it could be some trap.

"I also heard 'collectors' " said fred to which others nodded except nylis.

"Looks like it's a distress call. This fehl prime colony is being attacked by collectors" said the chief, getting the picture.

"I've traced the signal's location from the comm-bouy. It's 60 light years from here" said cortana bringing up the holo of fehl prime in front of chief.

"Something's scrambling the comm in the planet. We better go and check it" said kelly.

"Wait! what if its a trap?" asked nylis still refusing to believe the collectors.

"If its collectors abducting the humans in that colony, they need our help. If its a trap, we'll make sure they fall into it." said chief plainly

"Cortana, initiate slipspace rupture to the location" ordered chief to which cortana nodded and entered the coordinates and engaged the slipspace drive. The ship entered the slipspace and the portal closed.

"Team! lets get locked and loaded. This is our first contact with a human colony and the collectors" said the chief and the four went to the armory to pick their desired weapons. Chief carried a MA5D guass rifle, type 57 carbine and a pair of type 54 pistols. Fred carried MA5D and M45E shotgun, Linda carried 99C series 2 sniper rifle and type 55 rifle. Kelly carried a MA5D and a pair of type 54 pistols. Nylis was in her default military suit with her usual weapon, avenger assault rifle and acolyte. They were all waiting to exit slipspace. All the five went to the hanger.

In the matter of minutes the ship exited the slipspace 30,000 kms from the planet. Then nylis spoke

"I cant believe i'm doing this! I was sent here to monitor you and give reports to the council. I'm sure that this collector thing is a trap!" said nylis not liking the situation.

"If you are afraid, stay here! but stop whining!" said linda annoyed with her. Nylis gave a fiery look but there's nothing she can do about it now. Cortana immediately popped up from the holo-pedestal.

"Guys! You need to see this" bringing up the region where the distress call originated. She then brought up the holo image of the scanned region.

"I scanned the whole area where the call originated. This is what's been happening" said cortana bringing up the holo display of a strange ship with hull looking like rocks and a circular rotary section and metallic structure at the rear end. Nylis was confused with the ship. She had never seen anything like this.

"By the goddess! what is tha-...Is that a ship!?" asked nylis stumbling with words.

"Chief, the ship is leaving the surface. It's a human settlement but now that region is empty. Also i'm detecting lots of humans and unknown life signs inside the ship" said cortana

"Unknown? could they be collectors!?" asked kelly

"Don't know. But they dont match anything we've seen in the codex" said cortana which was troubling for nylis as she started to doubt the reality.

"Cortana, what can you tell me about the ship?" asked chief

"I tracked its ascend. It's current course will put it straight into our line of sight. Also the ship uses a form of shielding system called 'Kinetic barrier' but stronger than other ships in this galaxy. But it's not powerful like our energy shields" said cortana which was shocking for nylis as she heard that their shielding are not advanced as UNSC. Also she's tensed with this new ship.

Chief, having fought a war for 30 years mastered all the fighting strategies, even the unconventional ones. He is now planning to stop the collectors.

"Cortana, can you disable the ship using EMPs?" asked chief

"Yes, 2 EMP mines can disable the whole ship and fry their internal systems"

"Then setup EMP mines to their position. When they come, they wont know what hit them. Also engage ship's stealth system. They should not find us" said chief

"Then we'll infiltrate the ship silently" finished fred to which the team nodded in approval. Nylis was stunned with their plan.

"You are going to enter the ship!? are you mad!? who knows what's inside that thing!" yelled nylis.

"Listen, the situation's a surprise to you, but not to us. If you want, you can come or stay here" said chief clearly. Nylis thought not to go with the spartans but she's even more afraid to be here alone with the sentinels moving here and there.

"No time to waste! Cortana, launch the mines" said chief to which she nodded and activated the launchers. 2 EMP mines flew from the ship's mine launchers and held their position against the collector ship.

"Ship's approaching the position in 5...4...3...2...1" finished cortana.

When the collector vessel entered the mine spot, the mines launched a powerful radiation pulse from the ship's left and right side near the rear end. The ship suddenly lost it's power and the drive core failed. All of their systems shutdown and now stranded blind helplessly. Dawn disengaged the stealth as they can't see them now.

"Chief! The EMPs did their job. The ship's power systems are offline and also their entire computer terminals have short circuited. But they will recover from it. We have to get in there and out fast" said cortana. Chief then took cortana's chip and inserted it to his helmet.

"So...dont you think we are about to prove something that the whole galaxy denies!?" asked cortana in his head.

"They'll never learn!" said chief to which cortana gave a sigh in his head.

"Alright team! We'll take a pelican and then board their ship. Our priority is to look for human survivors and engage any hostiles" Chief said out loud to get a response from the team. Then chief prepped the pelican and the others boarded it. The hanger doors and the hard light barrier was disabled. Then chief started the engines and flew it towards the collector vessel. The ship was put to lock down by cortana.

They reached the side of the ship's hull. The ship was big to match the alliance dreadnought. Then chief entered a opening he saw that was big enough to fit the pelican. He landed onto the ground and the back door opened. The chief and his team came out holding the weapons in their hand. Chief held on to type 57 carbine, kelly with dual type54 pistols, fred with shotgun and linda with sniper. Nylis was holding her acolyte. They started moving inside. The walls had both rocky surface and as well as polished dark golden surface. The place looked like insect colony.

"Look at the interior design!...it's feels more organic than just simple construction materials. Wonder what's deep inside the ship!" said cortana. Nylis was silent for the whole time trying to process what she's seeing. She's almost convinced about the existence of the collectors.

They walked along the pathway they saw. It was some what narrow. But still their comm are scrambled inside for unknown reasons. Then everyone proceeded through the hallway and stopped suddenly. There was a human body in the floor. Everyone went near it. Chief knelt down to take a look. The helmet visor displayed the 3D scan of the body and identified the injuries.

"Chief, he was shot down. But no sign of bullets" said cortana

"Directed energy weapons, maybe?" asked linda

"Could be. Team...stay sharp!" said chief stood up and the team proceeded further.

They also saw strange pods that can carry one person. But they saw a lot of those.

"Why there are so many pods?" murmured Nylis. All of a sudden, everyone heard wing flaps at a high speed. Turning around, they saw mysterious biped aliens landing on the ground and started shooting at them.

"CONTACTS!...everyone take cover!" yelled fred and they all took cover behind, what looked like a barricade. The collector soldiers were shooting at them with their version of assault rifle. Chief then started shooting his carbine. The plasma coated kernels drained their barriers in just four shots and then pierced their brown armored hide like it was nothing. The aliens screamed in pain and died. There were 7 soldiers in total. Both were exchanging shots. The ammo from collector rifle made the blue team's armor to glow in golden energy with chief's in golden-orange color. Nylis was stunned with the energy from their armors. She guessed that it should be the energy shield. The blue team used their weapons and laid down rains of ammo that splattered the collector bodies. Nylis couldn't believe what she saw. Her jaws dropped and eyes popped with the power of their weapons. Before she could even fire her weapon, the 7 soldiers were dead.

"By the goddess! what kind of weapons are those?" she thought out loud and also slightly frightened to see these new creatures. She finally came to a conclusion that the collectors were real.

Chief and the others moved towards a dead collector being. After chief took a scanning look at it, the visor displayed the 3D image of the collector body and showed the genetic and physiological data which cortana picked up through him.

"Check that...The body looks like a cross between organic skin and mechanized suit" said kelly.

"Yes. Its a bio-mechanical skin but acts like an actual flesh. Also i am seeing lots of cybernetic implants in each and every part. Looks like they are just organic killing machines created and controlled by someone or...something" said cortana wondering their nature.

"So, these must be the collectors, i guess. Linda, get to a sniping position and cover our six while we make the front assault. Others stay with me in a range" ordered chief to which everyone nodded. They were moving in a diamond formation with linda as their sniper support. They proceeded towards another hallway. It had 2 blast doors, one in the front and another in the side of the room that can be reached through a short slope.

"Chief! i'm intercepting a faint signal that matches alliance frequency from the door on the side" said cortana

"Must be the ones who gave the distress call" replied chief. Suddenly several collector foot soldiers and 8 bulky creature that was holding what looked like a hand cannon landed there. They started shooting at them.

"Team! take cover and open fire!" ordered john. Everyone took a covering positions and started shooting at them. The bulky creatures shot cannon rounds that sent multiple explosions to the ground to their positions. To the spartans it did little damage but proved a valuable distraction as it blinded their position with dusts. Chief saw this and decided to ambush them. He entered the spartan time where everything slowed down. He holstered his weapons and activated his right hand wrist energy sword. Then charged towards them at blinding speed and was also using his force field projector from his left hand to ricochet the incoming projectiles. Some even flew back at them. After getting to their centre, john swung his sword over the collectors slicing their bodies to shreds and burning them one by one in a fluidic movement. Nylis was dumbstruck to see the chief reacting with lightning reflex, thanks to his promethean augmentations that made him a lot stronger than the regular spartans. In matter of seconds, he finished of the bulky creatures that made easy for his team to take care of the soldiers. The collector soldiers started shooting at their nearest foe, the chief. But he held of easily using his force field while his team took them one by one. This is when the strangest thing happened that stunned everyone.

" **ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL**!" came a deep and hard growled synthetic voice when suddenly one soldier was slightly lifted in air with his body mutating into fire like texture and eyes glowing bright golden yellow. It suddenly stopped firing waved its hand to stop others to fire too. This act confused the spartans and they too stopped firing and slowly moved toward chief pointing their guns towards them. Nylis felt a chill in her spine as what she saw was pure horror. She was standing besides the spartans in absolute fear.

"Chief! This soldier...Its implants are flared up like anything. It looks like something has possessed it!" said cortana seriously. Chief listened to cortana and stared at the possessed soldier.

This is when the mutated soldier started to speak.

" _ **4 humans and one asari**_ " said the soldier that was confusing for the blue team but nylis was shocked with that thing recognizing her kind. The collector was able to identify the genetics in the spartans but couldn't understand the augmentations and armor specs because cortana sensed the being trying to infiltrate their armor and cybernetic systems to learn everything, so she used her mainline programs to prevent that and at the same time hiding her presence.

" _ **I had been watching you since your arrival. It is interesting that i cannot recognize your augmentations and armor variants**_ " said the collector refering to the four spartans. It was quite alarming.

"Who are you?" asked chief in a deep tone demanding answer from it.

" _ **We are the 'Harbinger' of your destiny, evolution and survival**_!" replied the collector. They were confused with its reply as it didn't make any sense to them.

"What do you want with the humans?" asked linda

" _ **This harvestation cannot be stopped. The cycle will continue just as it did for eons! and you will be first and last to witness it**_ "

The word 'cycle' clicked everyone's mind with the cycle of extinction every 50,000 years.

"Uh..Oh!" cortana jerked in chief's helmet now knowing that what it is exactly.

"So you!...are responsible for the cycle of extinction every 50,000 years!" said chief raising his voice. Nylis was confused with what chief meant.

" _ **The harvestation is your only option of survival! Those who resist will only meet inevitable death. You can't stop the cycle...you can't stop us! we will return from the darkness and fulfil our purpose"**_ replied the collector.

"Did you say that you had been watching us since our return?" asked fred

" _ **We noticed your presence. The technology you carry is not of this galaxy's origin which makes you four unknown variables. For your arrival is a mystery, You will be captured and analyzed to correct our course of action!"**_ said the collector. The other collector soldiers now aimed thier guns at them. The spartans knew of its intentions. Nylis was really troubled with this.

"Enough with your crap! Stop this or you will get to taste the hell!" threatened chief.

" _ **Your petty threats are irrelevant! You can only destroy the host, but not us. You will change nothing!...Now surrender or die a painful death!"**_ with that said the possessed collector sent a energy blast over the spartans. Though the energy shields shrugged it off, the force sent them few steps back made them grunt. Immediately they started shooting at them. Nylis used her biotic shields to protect herself but she couldn't hold on for long. The spartans energy shield were degrading slowly. The collector weapons are not that effective against them. Chief and the others immediately took their guns and stormed them with bullets and super-heated plasma kernels that pierced their bodies and incinerated them. All the collectors are dead in minutes. The possessed collector simply turned to dust. Nylis started to freak out. The captain of the asari fourth fleet having fought countless pirates was not used to this kind of threat.

"Oh No! The collectors!...The reapers!...Shepard was right after all!..We can't stop them!"

"Snap out of it Nylis!" yelled the chief. The frightened look still in the asari's face.

"It's not over yet!...At least we got the picture of who's behind this. We will stop this!" said the chief. He realized that though asari having fleet strength, ground strength, biotics, they will fear of the unknown. Nylis might me reputed among her species, but even she can be engulfed in fear.

"Are you mad! if they are capable of destroying all life in the galaxy, we can't stop them!"

"Listen, we are not new to this kind of threats in our reality...We have seen and even stopped the forces that threatened the galaxy. When i say we will stop them...I mean it" chief said in a pressing tone that somehow convinced the asari. His words though not helpful but were encouraging.

"There are a lot of things you dont know about us" said kelly.

"Chief! We need to save those colonists. They dont have much time!" urged cortana

"Let's go team! we have humans to save from these collectors" said chief getting a nod in response and they started moving towards then opened door. It led to another hallway.

They suddenly heard howling sounds which turned out to be human like beings. This reminded chief of the flood infected human forms. They all ran towards them. Chief immediately stormed at them and performed a shock wave attack to the ground creating a powerful tremor that knocked all the husks out. Nylis was amazed with the chief's armor capabilities.

"Are they humans?" asked fred wondering.

"Looks so. These collectors must be turning them into monsters. we have to stop them soon. come on!" said chief. Everyone walked forward and cortana spoke up.

"Chief! I'm detecting human life signs in the next cell"

"Then lets go help them" said chief and all the five moved towards the next door.

...

"Shit! Essex, we need to spread this antidote to free the colonists" yelled lieutenant James vega of the systems alliance hiding behind a barricade evading collector's attack.

"Messner screwed us up! Now we are left alone" yelled another soldier named Milque.

"Now we have the power cell that brood gave us before dying. Essex, charge your biotics with this. I will need your help in getting the canisters to the pod tubes" said vega making a covering fire at the collectors from the barricade.

"Nice plan. But even my biotics can't handle this much fire power" said Essex.

"Fuck! then we are screwed up here!" yelled milque.

This is when the door in their back opened and came a swarm of heavy bullets and plasma kernels that started to incinerate the collector forces and tear them apart. The three soldiers turned back and saw 4 massive armored figures and an asari. The weapons carried by the four looked strange to them. They were awestruck with their weapons and their armors who were tearing the collectors like tissue papers. They also witnessed their armors surrounded by a golden field that repelled the collector shots. They were intimidating enough that one of the three raised his gun towards them thinking they too were hostiles. Chief then knelt down next to vega while others were firing at the collectors. The blue team saw numerous pods that held paralyzed humans.

"Are you an alliance soldier?" asked chief

"Wha-...! yes..lieutenant James vega...and who the hell are you people!?" asked vega loudly with little fear.

"Easy lieutenant! Listen, i will play your questions once we save these colonists and get out of this ship!" said chief

"You're here to help us!?...go blow yourself!" said milque loud enough.

"Listen to them, if you wanna live.!" said Nylis. Others wondering what an asari doing with them.

"If you want your asses to be saved, do what we say!...or you're welcome to rot in this hellhole!" yelled linda while firing at the collectors.

Vega thought for a moment analyzing their situation and found no option but to do what they ask. He spoke to the two then.

"Listen, we dont know who they are, but they're helping us. Its better to follow their lead until we get ourselves out of the ship...is that clear!?" asked vega. Though hesitant, they too knew they wouldn't survive, so they accepted.

"Fine. But sir, these colonists are paralyzed by the collectors. We need to get this antidote to those pod tubes to free them" vega showed the antidote and the pod tube port.

"Vega! what of that bastard and treeya!? he took her somewhere! we cannot lose treeya!" said Essex which made vega to slightly frown.

"Listen, i'll look for them. My team will get the antidote to the tubes...okay?" asked chief. Vega nodded in response.

"Kelly! Take this antidote and place in the pod tubes. I'm going to look for their other team members" to which she nodded in response and took the antidote canister.

"Cortana! mark the pod tube location to kelly's HUD" said chief

"I've already done that chief. Let's go find the two members" cortana replied . With that chief moved forward firing at the collector hordes and then moved backward to the left of their position where he spotted an open door. He entered and the door closed behind.

"Hoh! that was close!" said cortana.

"Can you spot any human life signs from here?"

"Yes across 4 rooms, one level down" replied cortana. Chief then switched to promethean vision which scanned through everything revealing objects behind the wall. Then he saw the floor which in fact revealed 2 tiny people a level down from his position. He zoomed in to get the clear view. He identified one as human and another as asari. Switching back to normal vision, cortana marked the location in his HUD. Then they proceeded forward.

After opening the first door, there were 12 collector soldiers and 6 scions. Chief activated the camouflage and silently got to a right position behind a barricade. Then disengaged the cloak and started firing his MA5D rifle. The gauss rounds tore through their armor depleting their barrier in few shots. The soldiers screamed in pain and died. Others started shooting him. Suddenly chief opened his palm and a mini slipspace portal opened spawning a plasma grenade in his hands. The portal immediately closed and chief activated the trigger and threw the grenade at the collectors. After 3 seconds, a fiery plasma explosion engulfed 5 collectors and 2 scions and turned them to dust. One of the remaining soldiers got possessed and turned into a fire like being.

"ASSUMING CONTROL" again came the synthetic voice.

"Chief! he's back...take him out" said cortana

" _ **You persist against the unstoppable force! surrender human!"**_ said the possessed collector.

"Not today!" said chief out loud and started firing at him. It sent an energy blast just like before. But the armor's energy shield can take a lot more than this. Chief grunted at the force caused by the blast and unloaded the ammo from his guass rifle at it. The collector was killed and turned to ash saying something.

" _ **You can kill them, but not us!"**_

Chief then fired his rifle at the remaining collectors and killed them all with ease. There was a foul smell of burnt collector bodies. Chief then entered the next three halls and fought hordes of collectors. Chief used the shockwave ability to create tremors that knocks the collectors down. Also entered spartan time and used his wrist energy sword to slice the collectors to pieces and burn them with the heat of the plasma. The rooms were filled with torn pieces of collector bodies and ashes. He deactivated the sword and switched to the assault rifle and went near the final door.

...

"By the goddess! why are you doing this messner!?" asked treeya in terror.

"I just need information about the collectors. This prothean archive can give me what i just need" said messner in a sinister tone. Messner is a cerberus operative hiding covertly in fehl prime. The human colonists were forced by him to use the archive but were burnt with images and they died. But asari being naturally gifted psychics can do this with little difficulty.

"Now access the archive and give me the information. I may spare you" said messner. Treeya had no choice but to do what he says. She succeeded in accessing the archive and saw everything regarding the prothean's last stand against the reapers and their failure. Then getting captured and mutated extensively as the reaper's indoctrinated slaves, The Collectors. She also found their plan to harvest humanity to create a human reaper in their home world. She was forced to reveal those information to messner and he recorded everything in his bracelet. Then suddenly the room's door was blasted away. Messner immediately aimed his gun at the entrance. From the smoke, he saw a massive 7'3" armored behemoth that sent chill to both their spines. Treeya's face was filled with terror. The cerberus agent was sweating after seeing him keeping his gun aimed. He had never seen anyone this big and the armor and his weapons were alien to him.

"Who the hell are you!? yelled messner

"That depends on what you're about to do next. I'm either your friend or your worst nightmare!" said chief in an intimidating voice that sent terror in his face.

"Wow! you really pissed him off! you know!? now-a-days, you have improved very well in threatening with words" said cortana chuckling in his mind. Chief didn't respond to that. Without a second thought the cerberus agent started shooting him. Chief simply raised his left hand to bring a force field that ricocheted the projectiles.

"What the shi-..!?" before he could finish, chief shot his head and the flesh from his head splattered. This sent fear to the asari standing next to messner's body as he was walking towards her. She was stunned with the strange technology he possessed. She took messner's weapon and aimed at him. Chief lowered his guard and started talking.

"Are you alright mam?". Treeya was convinced that he's not an enemy though she's confused as to who he is. She had never seen anyone like him. But his voice was clear enough to identify him as human.

"ye-..Yes. I'll be...thanks! but, who are you?" asked treeya in confusion.

"You can call me chief for now. I'll explain everything to you once we get off this ship, okay!?" asked chief to which she nodded.

"But! how did you know he was an enemy?" wondering how this strange man knew she was threatened.

"I was watching this guy threatening you to get information, which brings me to my next question, what is this archive he was talking about?"

"It's the truth about the collectors. I'll tell you after we get off this ship. By the way my name is treeya" said the asari to which chief nodded in acknowledgement.

"Others are waiting for us. Let's go!" said chief and the two left the room.

Both regrouped with the vega and the blue team members. Chief saw the colonists were free and most of the collector forces have been obliterated. The colonists were staring at the spartans and even more at chief, but he didn't bother. Vega, Essex and Milque were happy to see treeya alive. Vega and treeya shared a hug in joy and then saw Nylis which was surprising.

"Captain Nylis! It's surprising to see you" said treeya.

"I'm with the spartans to monitor them as per the orders from the council" said nylis which was quite surprising especially the word she used to call them, spartans.

"Spartans!?" asked treeya raising her eyebrow.

"I'll explain you later" finished nylis.

"Thank you sir! whoever you people are..we owe you a lot!". Chief simply nodded in response. Kelly, Fred and Linda were checking on the colonists.

"That's a scary piece of technology you and your team carry! if we had something like this, the collectors simply would have taken their sorry asses back to where ever they came from!" said Essex out loud in amusement. Chief simply stared at him.

"By the way, I'm Essex and that is Milque, you already know vega" said essex to which chief only nodded.

"You know! Everyone wants to lay their hands on us and our tech. They are worse than the reapers and collectors!" smirked cortana

"Cortana!"

"Alright caveman! I'll leave this to you"

"We have one more thing to do" thought chief which cortana remembered. Chief then turned to vega and talked.

"Lieutenant, we have 4 heavy prowlers in our ship. Each can carry 120 passengers. Its enough for those colonists to take and drop them to the surface" said chief. Vega and others were shocked to hear those spartans own a ship. Chief signaled cortana to bring the prowlers.

"That would be nice. And we are suppose to report to the alliance command on earth." said vega.

"We can take you there. Anyway, it would be a nice opportunity to meet your alliance personnel" said Fred to which they nodded.

"Wait! what happened to messner?" asked Milque.

"Dead..This person saved me from him" said treeya refering to the spartan.

"Huh! That cerberus son of a bitch got what he deserved!" said Essex

"Alright let's get to the evac point. Follow us" said chief to which his team nodded and walked with him. The alliance crew and the colonists followed them. The colonists were talking among themselves about these armored giants.

At the entrance, they saw 4 large ships of unknown design and classification flying towards them.

"What the hell is that!?" asked Vega. Others were staring at the approaching ships in awe. They have never seen anything like this. Vega was wondering if the prowlers that's gonna rescue them is this big, then he couldn't imagine about the ship they told about. The pelican chief and his team used to enter the ship was near by them, but cloaked. The prowlers turned and opened the doors to let the colonists in. After all the 4 prowlers were filled, they flew to the planet's surface.

"So how are we gonna get out?" asked Essex to which chief pointed out his left. They saw nothing, but suddenly a gunship appeared out of cloak which stunned everyone. Treeya started to wonder about the technologies these mysterious people possessed. Everyone boarded the pelican and they reached the dawn. The crew's jaw dropped after seeing the ship.

"By the goddess! There's no way a ship this big can be built!...not without indefinite quantities of eezo to power it which would eventually bankrupt even the richest organization" Treeya thought out loud. Others couldn't even find words to explain what they saw. They also saw the ship had no trace of human architecture.

"Are these people humans!?" thought Milque intrigued with the ship's design. They finally entered the hanger and the pelican touched down. The crew came out to see drones flying here and there. They were wondering what they were. The prowlers also returned to the ship and all the hanger doors are sealed.

Then chief took cortana's chip and placed in the pedestal.

"Cortana, blow the ship!" said chief. Others were wondering to whom and what he was talking about except nylis. The dawn then aligned itself to face the collector ship.

"Launching MAC round from MAC 1" said cortana, with only the voice coming out. They couldn't locate the source.

Then a 850K-ton slug was launched from their at the blinding speed that tore the collector ship to pieces in a single shot. From the hanger it was clearly visible.

"Holy fu-..! There's no weapon in the galaxy that could do this much devastation. Our fleets mass accelerator can barely touch the hull!" shocked Milque. Others had the same expression in their faces.

"Who are you people!? Are you humans? Your technologies, ships, your size...weapons!...They dont follow our standards!...Collectors had abducted 6 human colonies in total. They couldn't be saved. But you came then, saved us and tore their ship apart!" exclaimed Essex.

"They are humans" replied Nylis.

"Captain Nylis, you owe me an explanation." said treeya.

"I will tell you about them, but first we need to go to thessia and tell the command what's happening. It's about time they learned the truth!" replied nylis, now turning to chief.

"Chief, I think it's time to part ways"

"I get it and you are doing the right thing. Remember, this isn't over and don't lose hope. If you need help, we will be there!" said chief to which nylis nodded with a smile. She also asked chief to give her and treeya a ride to thessia to which he nodded.

Then nylis talked to treeya and explained about them. She was absolutely shocked. Even the alliance soldiers were listening to them and were equally troubled with this.

"Holy Shit! I always thought that stuffs like alternate realities are movie fictions!" vega said out loud. Others were equally stunned with this information. But they realized it's all true when they learned about their ships, weapons, armors and their independence to 'Eezo'.

Nylis also explained them about the spartans, their history, their reality's galactic history, The faction UNSC etc., They dont know how to react at the information that the 4 massive figures are augmented humans called the 'spartans'. But they see why. They had fought the toughest war and even turned its tide to humanity's favor though few in numbers. The alliance soldiers and the asari treeya were thinking of the possibilities of such technologies in this galaxy. They wondered about the outcomes, especially not needing to rely on mass relays. But they knew the spartans aren't gonna give them just like that.

The blue team and the 3 alliance soldiers went to the bridge. Chief then sat in his chair and others went to their terminal. This is when cortana showed up from the holo pedestal. The alliance soldiers were shocked to see this strange blue holo-graphic figure.

"What the hell is that!?" freaked out milque

"Hi! I'm UNSC AI CTN0452-9 or you can call me cortana"

"Wha-..! Is that an AI!? I dont know how long you've been here, but AIs are forbidden in this galaxy" said milque quite tensed. But the three find its appearance attractive.

"Yeah! I here that a lot" said crossing her arms. They were shocked to see it behaving like a human.

"She's quite a chick for an AI!" whispered vega to essex to which he gave a smile.

"I heard that too!" cortana raising her eyebrow to which they became dumb.

"Cortana, set a course for thessia" said chief to which she nodded and entered the coordinates. Then the alliance soldiers saw the ship entering slipspace which made their eyes widened. In minutes, they reached the place far from thessia to hide themselves.. Then chief spoke to the 2 asari in hanger through intercom.

"We have arrived 100,000 kms from your home world" said chief.

"We'll take care of the rest" said nylis and contacted her fleet to pick her up. After sometime, a ship from her fleet entered dawn's hanger. Nylis and treeya boarded it and the ship flew away from the dawn. Then the hanger doors are closed. Nylis then spoke through an holographic image in front of chief.

"Thank you for this second chance. We will not waste it" said nylis to which he nodded and then the comm was terminated.

"So everything went well! for now. So where are we heading next?" asked kelly. There was a slight pause. Everyone were looking at him for reply. Then he spoke.

"Earth!"

 **Don't forget to review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: The 3 alliance defence councilors seen in mass effect 3's prologue have a role in this chapter. As their names are unknown, I have given them names on my own for easy reference. Also i'm sorry for writing the story of UNSC again as i wanted the spartans to interact more with the alliance.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Mass effect**

 **Chapter 7: Home coming**

 **Alliance space, Earth**

 **2185**

Admiral Steven hackett was speaking with the alliance council members in vancouver. His ship already in due to return to the Arcturus station. He was discussing about the commander shepard and his alliance with the human centric terrorists, Cerberus. At first, everyone assumed that shepard was dead when the normandy was attacked and torn to pieces. But two years later, he made his presence known ot the galaxy starting from omega, but not in a pleasing way. Hackett couldn't believe he's alive. Antella was the first to spot commander's presence. Hackett denied major's request to bring him into custody for briefing, which proved to be the right decision now. Hackett's denial might be either he should have already known that shepard's covertly taking down collectors or for other reasons. But he always supported shepard and defer to his judgements. Now he's doing the same with the 3 members of the defense comittee. They were sitting over a table in a higher platform. One was a lady in her 50s named Vanessa. The other two were male with one being dark skinned named Michael and the other being a pale brown complexion named Sullivan .

"Admiral! You must realize that shepard is no longer our asset. He lost his position when he decided to join the cerberus" spoke councilor michael

"Goddammit Councilors! First you must realize, shepard didn't join them. He was merely found by cerberus and got revived which in my opinion was good for now!" reasoned Hackett

"Keeping alliance with the terrorists is not good admiral! Commander's actions will have its ramifications. And if circumstances call for drastic actions, should if our security's threatened, it may not end up well for him" spoke councilor vanessa with seriousness. Hackett had his face slightly frowned. He never thought the alliance command would court-martial him even after all he has done everything for humanity.

"With all due respect councilors! Shepard might have joined the wrong faction, but he's still helping us. We all know about the mysterious abductions of humans from 10 colonies. Shepard is investigating it. He found that a race called collectors were responsible including the recent ones on freedom's progress" said hackett pressing hard to help shepard.

"Well, what if it's cerberus is behind all this?" asked the councilor sullivan.

"Cerberus might be a terrorist group, but hitting our own kind is really not their style. I take shepard's word for this." replied hackett. The defence councilors think that admiral hackett is getting fooled with some conspiracy.

"No one has ever seen the collectors. You had just been fed with the conspiracies" said the councilor vanessa.

"Mam, The aliens were conspiracies until the discovery of prothean archives on mars in 2148. Don't ignore shepard just becau-" Suddenly hackett was cut by an officer in the nearby terminal. Hackett and the councilors looked at the officer

"Admiral! We have an incoming transmission from SSV kilimanjaro"

"patch it through" said hackett to which the officer replied and activated the comms.

"This is captain Davis of the SSV kilimanjaro. Admiral, our fleet's sensors have picked up a massive gravitational distortion just outside our defense perimeter. Sending you the visual now" with that, a large video screen in the wall behind hackett turned on and showed the live feed from kilimanjaro.

The defense councilors stood up immediately tensed seeing big portal like thing with blue-white energy in the edges. Hackett saw the feed and was slightly tensed. But what they saw next was even more troubling and had everyone's jaw dropped. A massive ship came out and the portal closed.

"My god! Is that a ship!?...It's BIG! said councilor sullivan, his eyes widened. Everyone in the room saw the feed and were stunned. There were murmuring sound in the hall as everyone's talking about what they are seeing.

"Never seen anything this in my life. We better be ready...Captain! have the fleet to position itself against it with in the defense perimeter!" ordered Hackett.

"Acknowledged admiral, Davis out" with that the line was terminated and hackett decided to stay with the councilors.

"Who could that be!? asked councilor vanessa.

"I would tell you if i know"..."God! hope this doesn't bring anymore trouble!" thought hackett with worry.

"Sir! It's captain davis. Our ship scanners show that big ship doesn't have any eezo in their power source. Also the ship doesn't match any of the ships in this galaxy...Sir! The ship's 5km in length! and whatever's powering it can supply power to the whole planet!" said the captain in flat tone with absolute shock and disbelief.

"That's Impossible! The largest ship known in this galaxy is the destiny ascension"..."Captain! Be ready to engage the ship on my word' said hackett.

"Yes sir!" with that, the comm was terminated.

"Dammit! A ship this big will need unimaginable amounts of Eezo. Even then, this ship doesn't use Eezo! how's that Possible!?" asked councilor michael.

"Above all! How did this ship manage to enter our system with out the mass relays and through some portal!?" asked councilor vanessa.

Hackett thought for a moment. The councilor's asked the right questions. In fact, it's the same running in his mind. He thought it could easily become another first contact scenario.

"A power source that can power a planet!? My god! How could it be!?" thought hackett. This is when the comms officer in the nearby terminal spoke.

"Sir, incoming transmission from the unknown ship"

"Patch it through" said hackett and then the officer turned on the speakers. But what they heard was shocking for everyone. It was a human who spoke in the transmission, but had a military tone.

"This is Master chief petty officer Spartan 117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. We have survivors of an alliance fire team from the colony fehl prime aboard our ship. Requesting permission to reach the surface and hand over the survivors"

"What the shit! Alliance marines in THAT ship!?" thought hackett in disbelief.

"And what the hell is this UNSC!? The alliance or any other races in this galaxy doesn't have any faction like this!" said councilor vanessa to which others nodded.

"Did they say fehl prime!? Then i guess i know who did that person refer to" said councilor sullivan and was picked up and finished by Hackett.

"Delta Squad!"

"What shall we do councilors?" asked hackett.

"They are very much unknown, And also they mentioned the delta squad with them. Let them come. Also it would be an opportunity to study this new faction and also to keep ourselves on guard should they pose a threat" said the lady councilor to which others nodded in acceptance.

"As your wish councilors...Comm! tell them their request has been accepted and prepare a homing beacon and ask them to follow it" said hackett to which the comm nodded and did exactly as he told.

"Hope this might not cause any more trouble councilors" said hackett turning towards the 3 councilors.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

 **"** Chief, they are sending a homing beacon from vancouver" said kelly from her terminal.

"Fine. Cortana! prep a pelican. We'll get to vancouver" said chief. Cortana nodded but before leaving, she found john staring at the holo image of earth in front of him. Chief, after seeing earth, reminded him of his reality's earth and all that she went through including her colonies. Chief's team mates also had a feeling in their heart. Then cortana spoke up.

"She's same" then with a sigh "Though not ours. We dont know how much of suffering, this earth has gone through"

"Yeah. Grew up in ballast, but...seeing earth makes me feel more human" said fred

"This is the birth place of humanity. This is the place we started our venture in to the distant stars!" said linda.

"Reminds me of our past battles with the covenants...earth...reach...harvest...it all goes on!" said kelly.

"Our earth or not, they are humans after all. Let's get this over with" said chief. The three alliance marines were watching their conversation. They didn't had any idea of what they were talking. Mention of covenants, reach totally confused them.

"Chief? what's that you people were talking?" asked vega.

"You will learn once we get to vancouver" said chief "Now let's get to the surface" to which everyone nodded. Chief asked cortana to maintain a copy of herself and keep the ship in lock down once they leave the ship. She did as he asked and chief took her in the data chip and inserted in his helmet. Everyone went to the hanger-2 from they will board a pelican. Chief piloted the gunship and the other six were seated in the crew seats.

"Sierra 117 to alliance command, we are approaching your location in a drop ship"

"Roger that. Land your ship in the platform marked as 'A', 3 clicks northeast of your position"

"Affirmative. 117 out!"

The three alliance marines had lot of questions in their mind. They were repeatedly looking at the 3 massive figures in front of them wondering who they really are. Though from the asari, they learned about but are still wary. They hoped they would get a clear explanation in the alliance command. Then the pelican touched the ground to where they were guided. Then everyone exited the pelican. Then everyone saw the beauty of vancouver city. The view pleased the blue team.

"Looks like our people of this reality have really progressed so much. We must give them credits" said cortana in to chief's head.

Chief mentally agreed with cortana. She referred humans of this reality as 'our people' since humanity is same. Then a man in a high ranking military attire with a cap came out of the building door with 2 marines with their guns loaded backing him. He came to greet his guests. The spartans after seeing him recognized him as a high ranking officer. The spartans saluted him and the officer returned the salute. Also he was happy to see three of the delta squad members but not at this time.

"I am admiral Steven hackett of the systems alliance" hackett was stunned to see those towering figures as they dont bear anything that belong to this galaxy even their height. He saw everyone stood 6'11" except the one in a strange and different looking armor from the other three. He stood 7'3". But he had a feeling that these might be humans from the way they looked.

"It would be good to know what race you represent" asked hackett keeping his face calm not wanting to cause an incident. .

"Humans. I am Master chief petty officer spartan 117. You can call me chief, admiral, and this is my team" said the chief introducing him and as well as his friends to which the admiral nodded in acknowledgement. The reply was quite shocking to him and as well as his guards. The 2 marines were looking at each other before turning their gaze back at the spartans He still couldn't believe they are humans especially this chief.

"My goodness! they are humans!?" thought hackett. Then he turned toward the delta squad.

"And now you three! If i remember correctly, Aren't you people on a mission in fehl prime. You were supposed to defend the colony against any threats!?" said the admiral in a commanding tone. Vega came front to speak.

"Yes sir! But we were attacked by an unexpected enemy not so long before. The enemy whom everyone believed are just myths". This made hackett to keep his face serious.

"Is it the reapers!?...no..no..it cant be!" thought hackett with tense. The blue team could see a glimpse of fear in his face.

"Who?" asked admiral

"The Collectors" replied milque. This shocked the admiral and even his 2 marine security.

"SHIT! Then shepard was damn right!" said hackett in a yelling tone. This made chief and the blue team to become suspicious.

"Chief! It's better if you all come inside and talk with the defense commitee members. Also it would be good to explain yourselves to let them know the depth of the situation" said hackett to which they nodded and then everyone went inside.

In the commitee hall, Admiral hackett, the blue team and the 3 alliance marines were standing in front of the 3 defense councilors. The councilors were silent for quite sometime staring at the 4 massive figures in awe. They had never seen any one like them even the armors and weapons they were looking strange to them. Other than councilors and hackett, there was no one in the hall. They decided to have this meeting in discretion.

"Admiral! would you care to explain what's going on here? And who are these...people?" asked councilor michael pointing to the spartans especially the one looking stranger than the others. There was a pause for a moment. Then hackett spoke to chief.

"Chief, it's better if you explain to them" said hackett to which he nodded in acceptance.

"I am Master chief petty officer spartan 117 of the UNSC Naval Special Warfare. This is my team kelly, linda and fred"

"So..you are navy?" asked vanessa to which he nodded.

"But still! This galaxy doesn't have any thing called UNSC and why do you call yourself spartan!?" asked Sullivan. There was a moment of silence.

"UNSC stands for United Nations Space Command, a naval body for scientific, military and exploratory missions of earth and its colonies" replied chief which stunned everyone in the room. They were amazed that these people represented earth.

"But -" started councilor michael but soon cut off by chief

"You're right. There is no UNSC here...not in this galaxy" said chief. Others found this troubling. The use of 'not in this galaxy' was alarming for everyone.

"What do you mean 'not in this gala-'...!?...are you humans from another galaxy!?" asked admiral hackett terrorized.

"Not like that...We belong to milky way...'SIGH'...but from another reality" said chief. The councilors, hackett and the 3 alliance marines faces changed from confusion to disbelief. This is when essex whistled in. Of course, they were the ones who saved their asses from the collectors. But this...This is totally stupid and insane.

"You know...it looks like even these people watch a lot of sci-fi movies to blabber something like this!" said essex raising his eyebrow and crossing his arms. But hackett felt like he needed some psychiatric evaluation. Councilors were simply looking at them eyes widened in confusion. Some part of them tells that they were lying, but some part of them tells that they are telling the truth.

"And the comment comes from a person who got his ass kicked by the collectors!" said linda turning to essex which brought a chuckle from vega, deep down vega knew they were actually telling the truth.

"But look at them! They possess technology which we have never seen before. These soldiers calling themselves spartans were in fact striking fear into the collectors themselves. 4 soldiers took out a ship full of collector soldiers, while our planetary defenses barely touched the ship's hull" finished vega lending his support to the spartans. This news sent shock to the councilor's and hackett's face.

"Their armors, weapons..hell! even their size are very much of an evidence that they are not from this place Lt. Vega. But it doesn't answer the question...WHO ARE THEY...ACTUALLY!?..." asked councilor michael pressing his tone very hard to make sure everyone heard it clear.

"Perhaps, I can give you answers" Unexpectedly, to everyone's surprise came a female voice from nowhere which confused everyone in the room. Chief then raised his right hand and opened his palm to reveal a holographic avatar of a girl, but with lots of digital circuit lines running through her. Then she suddenly jumped out chief's hand and grew to an average human size. Hackett and the councilor's mind got flared up at the sight. Even the alliance marines were awe strucked with that as they only saw cortana's projection in a projector, but not this big.

"What the hell is that thing!? yelled councilor sullivan

"Thing!?...I'm UNSC AI CTN 0452-9, but you can call me cortana" introduced herself after giving confusing stare at the councilors.

"An AI!?...Listen Strangers! Having an AI is offensive enough to ground you and sieze your possessions!" shouted councilor vanessa. Hackett though wary, was surprised with the AI's human behavior. The only AI's they knew in this galaxy was the geth that showed more hostile intentions. They were dangerous enough to force the citadel council to ban production of AIs.

"You can try and regret!" said kelly plainly but in a threatening way. The councilors were taken back by that lady's response. They realized not to mess with them especially with the technology they possessed.

"Listen, we know you got problems with the AI race you call 'geth'. But that doesn't have anything to do with us. I dont belong to this reality. In our place, there are a lot like me and we are an integral part of the UNSC." explained the AI. Hackett was convinced that this AI dont mean any harm and so do the spartans. But its frustrating to him that they know next to nothing about them. The councilors couldn't speak as they started doubt whether their 'other reality' stuffs were indeed true.

"Then explain everything about yourselves. How did you get here? who are you people?" asked councilor sullivan. Cortana looked back at chief. Chief gave a nod to which cortana gave a smile and started speaking to the councilors. They were eagerly waiting to hear what they got to say.

"First you must know that we come from another reality and also of different timeline. Your current year is 2185 where as our timeline is 2557"

"What!? you people are from the future!?" asked hackett, his eyes widened.

"No. Like i said, our reality is different from this one. We have lots of videos regarding our evolution in our place. Let me present it to you." said cortana suddenly she accessed the big screen behind them up on the wall. Everyone turned towards the screen. Then cortana proceeded to show the history of UNSC.

The councilors, hackett and the 3 alliance marines were paralysed with what they saw. The video showed how united nations was formed after world war II to oversee the global economic, political and military operations. The creation of 'International society of Civil Engineers' in 2021 as a first step to initiate outer space colonization. The United Nation's control over global military forces and their first outer planetary colonization of Mars. This very much reminded the alliance personnel of their discovery of prothean archives on mars which revolutionized humanity's evolution. Then conquering the jupiter's 63 natural satellites called the 'jovian moons' then other planets beyond jupiter. Earth based capitalism was changed to space capitalism setting new economic standards. With that the video was paused with hackett's interruption.

"UNSC might have conquered lot of outer planetary bodies, but i dont think the individual nations of earth would have liked UNSC's prolonged centralization"

"You are right. And it came in the form of 2 rebel factions. The Russian communist group 'Koslovics' and the German republic faction 'Friden'. They both thought that jovian moons should be under the control of individual nations instead of this UNSC. This caused political conflict between the UNSC and these rebel groups" explained cortana and continued the video. Then it showed the Friden group training the jovian moon colonists in the art of warfare to prepare and fight the UN leading to a fight between the Friden and UN forces called the 'Jovian moon campaign'. UN lost the fight. Following this in 2162, the Friden and the koslovics fought each other with UN forces struggling in the middle in south america which at that time was economically fertile and had lots of industrial resources. This eventually became what is called as the 'Rain forest wars'. Again the videos paused.

"This war must have caused both severe casualties and economic downfall" said the councilor vanessa.

"Yes. There was planet wide starvation and famine with losses for both the UN and the rebel groups" replied linda. Then the video continued.

Then to finally put an end to the rebels, the UN utilized the german 'blitzkreig' lightning attack to crush both koslovics and the friden by a surprise ambush in both ground and space. Both the groups were captured and finally, soldiers from all the countries grouped under UN forces to form the first space based marine corps and the capture of argyre planitia region of the mars. With that, the United Nations Space Command was formed inviting people from all over the world to join the marine groups under the banner. The UNSC's popularity was boosted by media propanganda. In between time of 2164-2170, The UNSC marines placed strongholds in all the colonies in SOL system. Finally the friden and the koslovics were defeated in the same jovian moons ending with the signing of 'Treaty of callisto'.

Then overpopulation led the UNSC more desperate to colonize lots of exoplanets. In 2310, two scientists, Tobias Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa discovered a means of faster than light travel method called the 'Slipspace'. This made UNSC's job to conquer exoplanets a lot easier. Then a vast line of ships were installed with slipspace drive leading to speedy conquer of planets enough to form inner earth colonies and outer colonies. By 2490, humanity conquered 800 exo-planets in the orion arm of the video again paused.

"Astounding! This slipspace seems to be more efficient than our mass relay systems. Your people must really be praised for making such a remarkable discovery on your own and above all...colonizing 800 worlds is no easy task!. We could learn a lot from you!" said councilor sullivan amazed with the humanity's progression. Other's too felt respect for this UNSC as they struggled a lot to achieve this.

"There's even lot to it" said cortana continuing the video feed.

Then the video showed of planet 'Reach' being made as the primary naval yard of the UNSC fleet and training facility for ground units and special forces. The inner colonies became political and economic strongholds and outer colonies became the suppliers of raw materials.

"Even with that much progress, These colonies should have called for independent government to live on their own given the fact that there are so many planets colonized." said hackett.

"How right you are! This is where the insurrectionists rose from the outer colonies, especially from the 'Eridani system' to rebel against the UNSC's centralized rule" said cortana and the video continued.

The insurrection threat grew alarmingly. The Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI, an intelligence branch of the UNSC decided to bring the insurrectionists by force through specialized soldiers and advanced equipments. They started project ORION in 2491 as a means to create bio-augmented soldiers and giving them advanced weaponries to fight them. The civil unrest grew to a significant point in 2494. But the results of ORION were disappointing, so the project was cancelled in 2506. But the reports of the insurrectionists were troublng for ONI. If the situation continued to escalate, it would become too late for UNSC to stop the rebels.

"The Eridani rebels look strong enough that given few more time, they would have over thrown the UNSC government!" said councilor Vanessa shocked with the rebel group's strength.

"You are right. But they didn't know what was coming for them. Doctor Catherine elizabeth halsey, ONI's greatest mind jump started the ORION project but this time, with careful planning and selection of recruits based their unique gene pool. They would eventually become the finest super soldiers called the SPARTAN IIs" explained cortana now turning to see the blue team.

The video proceeded to show the spartan II training. The kids at age six from different worlds who had the traits of previous subjects passed on to their children were specifically selected and kidnapped from their homes by ONI agents and replaced with their flash clones. These clones would die of natural causes over time. This threw shock in everyone's faces.

"They used children to fight the war!?..." asked hackett in awe. No species in the galaxy used children to fight.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" was the reply from master chief. Everyone turned to see him. Cortana was looking sad at chief and his team who were the subjects of spartan II. She became over protective of john from the day when she learned of what he went through as a child. She never liked halsey for what she did to the 75 children.

"But how can you justify forcing the kids in the war without giving them the choice!?" asked councilor michael.

"The 4 people standing in front of you are the subjects of spartan II program. Its too late for those questions to be asked" said cortana refering to the blue team that stunned others in the room. Then they went on to see the video.

75 in total were selected for the project and was the most highly guarded secret in ONI. The children were taught the art of war, values of team work, education in all the fields by the one who the spartan II candidates see as a father figure, Senior chief petty officer franklin mendez. His training methods might be harsh, but it was very much helpful in becoming what they were destined to become. At the age of 14 they received their augmentations. But that itself was a hiccup. 30 died of intolerance to pain, 12 were crippled with side effects and only 33 survived the procedure successfully. The augmentations gave them superior strength, nearly unbreakable bones with enhanced sight, reflex, stamina. The blue team were among those survived. Then everyone received their first MJOLNIR battle armor designed by none other than dr. halsey to become the spartans they wanted to be.

The councilors, hackett and the alliance marines now understood the meaning of spartans. They are elite supersoldiers bred purely for combat. But still it was hard for them to digest the fact that they were nothing but kids even with all the powers.

Then they also watched different spartan fire teams lead by the respective team leaders including this spartan 117 transported to different outer colony worlds with 117 on Eridanus II to stall the insurrectionists. But little did they knew about the spartan II's purpose.

"Something doesn't add up! Your people spent so much to create super soldiers only to fight rogue humans!?" asked councilor vanessa in suspicion. Even others had the same doubt.

"Everyone thought the same until humanity as a whole met their nightmare" said fred in a sad tone.

The video showed footage from 2525. It was then humanity discovered that they were not alone in the universe. Dark age for humanity began with their first contact with the theocratic alien alliance called the 'Covenant' which is composed of several alien factions. Before proceeding, the alliance people were shown images of different factions, Sanghelli, Mgalekgolo, Kig-yar, Unggoy, Jiralhanae and the San'shyuum. Some were intimidating for them. First contact was on a frigate Minor Transgression when it's kig-yar crew raided a just then arrived UNSC ship because of the malfunctioned slipspace drive. At first, it was assumed as rebels and the UNSC AI set a trap that skirmished them. Also the images of Avery johnson with sgt nolan byrne were shown. Then the covenant arrived at planet harvest in search for relics shown by their artifact called 'Luminary'. But soon found that the relics mentioned were infact humanity. This is when the covenant prophets decided to totally annihilate humanity viewing them as a disgrace to their gods, the fore-runners. And before their invasion, they left a message.

" _Your destruction is the will of the gods and we are it's instruments_!" This terrified the alliance personnel.

"With the way they viewed your people, and the technology they possessed, it must have not ended well" said councilor michael keeping his face expressionless and a concern in his voice.

"Yes. What started as a war, turned into a mass genocide!" said cortana sadly. This ddn't go unnoticed by the others. They were wondered with the way the AI expressed it's sadness for the humanity's fate. Even they felt genocide in the name of religion, an atrocity. Hackett thought that their first contact was not this severe. But soon the video showed nothing but horrors. The first battle with the covenant at planet harvest and its apparent glassing by the covenant. Admiral Preston cole's last stand to turn the tide of the assault. And last but not the least, the entry of spartan IIs into the war. Their first battle at Chi Ceti IV which became the turning tide in humanity's favor. The covenants were ambushed by the spartans in ground assault. The covenant feared the spartans and started referring them as 'demons'.

"So the covenants who were superior in aerial assault couldn't work their magic on the ground?" asked vega speaking for the first time since the video feed. Cortana simply nodded to it.

"So these spartans?..initially thought as a means to quell rebellion soon became humanity's warfare against the covenant" said hackett confirming what he saw. The blue team nodded in response.

The video proceeded to show Masterchief leading his blue team in several wars after the chi ceti like the harvest campaign, battle of circinius IV in the corbulo academy, Jericho VII, Raid on 3rd fleet of glorious consequence, Battle of Sigma Octanus IV. From the sigma octanus IV, humanity learned of covenant's true intentions. In that planet, covenant found an artifact called fore-runner crystal that can warp space, time and slipspace, but soon they were forced to fight heavy UNSC reinforcements suffering many casualties. In all the battle, John lost atleast one fellow spartans and few soldiers under his command. This really broke him down but vowed to become strong and protect them. Especially loss of spartan Sam 034, Solomon 069, Arthur 079. After that, Spartan III program was initiated under the supervision of Colonel James Ackerson. The most notable of them were the Noble team, consisted of 6 spartans. Then the covenant invaded the humanity's fortress, Reach. They found an artifact similar to the ones in sigma octanus IV in the SWORD base. They ambused the planet with several fleet including the covenant super carriers which made their jaws drop in shock seeing its size. Masterchief knew the covenant's were onto something and they were sent to reach station gamma. Meanwhile, noble team was dispatched on reach to clear covenant forces from the docks.

"If planet reach being your fortress was under attack, what happened to earth?" asked councilor vanessa.

"At that time they didn't knew about earth. But reach's fall was a major concern to us" said cortana.

"We were sent to destroy the NAV database to prevent the covenant from learning the locations of every human world." said chief.

Then the video shows john 117 entering the UNSC pillar of autumn. Cortana was secured by halsey in CASTLE base where she learned everything from the fore-runner crystal. Then noble team was sent to retrieve halsey where she asked the team to deliver the AI cortana to captain Jacob keyes of UNSC pillar of autumn. But the noble team was severely ambushed by covenant fleet and a scarab. Spartan Jorge 052 used a makeshift slipspace bomb to destroy covenant carrier 'Long night of solace' with him. Noble commander Carter A259 used a pelican to ram into the scarab and destroy it but not before he jumped off at a high altitude and escaped death in the verge. This actions bought others time to deliver cortana to captain keyes. Cortana used the coordinates derived from the artifact and the pillar of autumn made a random slipspace jump out of reach. The remaining were killed by covenant ground troops. The other survivor of the noble was Jun A266. The covenant fleet followed them to where ever they are headed to.

Then the real show began, Battle of installation 04. Everyone saw a big artificial ring near a gas giant.

"Holy hell! what is that!?" asked milque.

"That is a artificial construct called 'Halo' built by the forerunners" said cortana

"Forerunner!? They sound like an ancient race" said councilor sullivan.

"Exactly. There are totally 7 like this spread across our milky way. They had constructed a lot of similar constructs like this" said cortana. Others were stunned with these forerunner's technological marvel. This very much reminded them of protheans and their construction of mass relays and citadel.

The videos of UNSC fighting the covenants on the ring's surface. They were amazed to see the ring's inner region look like a planetary atmosphere. Then the release of the flood parasite, the galaxy's worst nightmare. The alliance people were terrified with the flood's nature for they had never seen horrors like this. The flood targeted both the covenant and the UNSC and master chief was forced to fight everyone all alone with his only company, cortana. The alliance people amazed and felt great respect for the chief and the spartans overall. Then video of a floating ball with a light is shown which linda explained as the monitor of halo 04, an AI created by forerunners to oversee the ring systems. The alliance people were stunned to see that their reality play with AIs like toys. Finally the rings true nature was revealed.

"So the ring...Halo!? It is a weapon and not to kill the flood, but to kill its food which's all the other life it can mutate?" asked hackett on awe.

"Yes. The forerunners created the halo as a weapon of last resort after failing every strategy to combat the flood"

"But your weapons are capable of killing it. Then why not use bigger ones to directly kill them!?" asked councilor michael.

"That's were you are wrong. Flood parasite do not simply assimilate the bodies of dead and living, but also their intelligence." said chief

"Which means!?" asked hackett in suspicion.

"Which means they can fight us using their own strategy like perfect soldiers and the worst thing is they can even pilot a ship, use guns like us" explained cortana. The alliance people also saw the flood foot soldiers using weapons.

"Not just that, they are capable of expanding at an exponential rate in a short time, such that give them a day, they will overrun atleast 100 planets in the meantime". This really shocked everyone and realized why flood is the worst threat in their reality.

Then they saw the footage of chief combating both the flood and covenant remnants on halo and finally destroying the whole ring by overloading the fusion reactors of the pillar of autumn after they realized that the monitor is determined to wipe the galaxy. The three alliance marines were dumbstruck with chief and cortana's heroic acts. Their actions saved the galaxy which very much reminded them of commander shepard's struggle in the citadel.

Then the videos of battle of earth, battle of installation-05, second battle of earth, revelation of the ark, gathering unexpected allies from covenant especially the one called 'Arbiter'. Rise of the flood grave mind, chief's decision to wipe the flood within the ark, the 343 monitor's betrayal and its apparent death, chief losing his friend, and commander miranda keyes, finally escaping the ark using a frigate but getting crushed by the collapsed slipspace portal, The end of the 30 year human-covenant war and humanity's progression towards building all they lost. Finally becoming allies with sanghelli and covenant seperatists. With that the feed was over.

One thing is for sure. The alliance people realized that the 4 spartans standing before them are infact heroes and especially the masterchief is a legend in his own right. With the hell they gone through for 30 years pushed to the brink of extinction, humanity never gave up and rose even more powerful and finally with the help of heroes like the spartans, they won the war.

"So, this is our story." finished cortana. The councilors, 3 marines, hackett felt like they were standing before gods.

"What can you tell us about the forerunners?" asked vanessa eagerly. Chief spoke up this time.

"They were once a peaceful race that came into existence 15 millions years before, technologically superior in the milky way. They believed in the 'Mantle of Responsibility' by which they based themselves as the caretakers of life in the galaxy" said chief explaining about the different classes in forerunners like warrior servant called prometheans, builders and life workers, miners.

"In fact they were the children of their ancestors, The Precursors" said cortana. This brought confusion in everyone's faces as to who are these precursors.

"Who are they!?" asked hackett raising his eyebrow

"Not much is known about them. But they were more powerful. After 5 million years, the forerunners became technologically superior. But what happened next was a mass slaughter. The forerunners rebelled against their creators and they almost mythologized their existence." said cortana. The blue team knew about these history from the archives in Iridescent. The alliance couldn't believe the forerunners wiped their own creators.

"Why did they do that!?" asked councilor sullivan

"Because the precursors favored humanity and handed over the mantle of responsibility to them." said cortana. This totally shocked everyone as they heard there was an ancient human species during that time.

"What!? There were humans at that time?" asked hackett with his jaw dropped.

"Not only that, but also they technologically matched the forerunners". Everyone remained silent processing what they learned.

"Humanity at that time, evolved into space faring beings and excavated precursor artifacts to study them and develop their own technology based on that. This was noticed by the precursors and felt that they were worthy to uphold the mantle since they had the potential to evolve on their own."

"Let me guess! These forerunners didn't like this and waged war against precursors out of jealousy." finished Essex.

"Yes. The precursors vanished. But during 110,000 BCE, humanity made first contact with the forerunners...but it didn't end well." said cortana.

"No first contact went without incidents" thought hackett. Then chief spoke.

"Humanity started destroying forerunner planets one after the other leading to the forerunner casualties in billions. The forerunners thought they were simply expanding over their territories in violence...But humanity was infact running and trying to save themselves and forerunners from a deadly surprise." said chief

"Running from what!?" asked councilor vanessa.

"The flood parasite" answered kelly. They were stunned with the reply.

"Humanity was the first to come into contact with the flood. After learning its true nature and the fact that they already overran many of their planets and even started to move towards the forerunner regions, They didnt had time to warn the forerunners of the threat. So they simply glassed all the infected planets" said cortana

"Didnt the forerunners fight back?" asked hackett.

"Yes. Forerunners and humanity fought a war with severe blood shed. Humanity on the other hand found a non-conventional way to defeat the flood. They studied the flood spore and genetically engineered it to counter it's effects and then assimilating that with their own people's DNA" said cortana. The alliance people were astounded with their tech marvel.

"So, did they become immune to the flood?" asked hackett eagerly.

"No. Instead the humans were transmutated into a different flood combat form. But in a way they succeeded to an extent"

"What!? You said that they were transformed to flood. How could it be a success?" asked councilor sullivan.

"These new combat form became a bio-weapon against the original flood targeting their own kind, killing each other out, neutralizing themselves. Seeing it as a success, The humans used a third of their own population to turn them against the parasite. The flood was defeated and retreated from the human territories ."

This was really a disgusting move according to the alliance people, but gave credit to their bravery of risking themselves to save everyone.

"Already weakened by the flood conflict, humans lost the war with the forerunners and got pushed back to their home world and finally defeated."

"What happened then? did they went extinct? how did the forerunners defeat the flood?" asked councilor michael terrified with their reality's horror.

"Before humanity was defeated, the forerunners had the human research datas regarding the flood cure. But in the war's closing time humans with a vengeance destroyed all their flood research datas and left them unprepared for the upcoming threat. Then forerunners devolved the humans to tribes and exiled them to earth. With the flood gone, They de-militarized themselves which proved wrong for them"

"Why?" asked hackett

"The flood returned and they were unprepared. Some forerunners went to one of the human colony to meet the flood intelligence called the gravemind. The intelligence revealed that humans never found a cure instead they simply decided to leave the humans alone" said cortana

"Isn't that already a defeat to them?" asked vega.

"Yes. This is when forerunners realized their blunder mistake. They came to know that humanity was already combating the flood before their eventual contact and that they were trying to help the forerunners from getting infested. Finally they decided that Halo arrays are their only solution to kill the flood, by starving them to death. Many opposed this but accepted seeing they have already failed. Before their death, they declared humanity as their successors and inheritors of their technologies as a reward. Halo arrays were fired and then all the sentient lives in the milky way including the forerunners died. Before that, the lifeworkers made sure that life would be reseeded in the galaxy after the halo's are fired. The flood starved to death and life flourished once again." finally finished cortana.

After the alliance people heard their history, they were totally dumstrucked. For millions of years, their milky way had been into lot of conflicts. These forerunners though sometimes reckless were infact noble and had sense of justice. Humanity on the other hand always struggled for its survival for millions of years. But if there's one thing the alliance admire of them, it's their motto of 'Never Back Down'. They thought they could learn a lot from them. Hackett suddenly had his face down as he felt that the spartans could have been a greater help to shepard in taking down the collectors. The 3 alliance marines felt great respect for these spartans. The video feed and the spartans, an AI standing before them were more enough evidence to learn who they are. But the next question lingers.

"That's fine. But how you people entered our reality?" asked hackett finding himself wierd asking this question to which the councilors nodded. Chief spoke up.

"In our reality, we were investigating an artifact of unknown origins. But when came near, we learned that the artifact is infact a portal, but an artificially created one. We couldn't do anything but got pulled by it's powerful gravity. Then we ended up here. Until we find a way out, we're stuck in this place" finished chief. The alliance people found the answer to be blunt as they felt the spartans were hiding something. The spartans though trusted the alliance didn't want to be more specific about themselves at that time.

"Then how did you meet the delta squad and brought 3 of them here" asked hackett straight to the point.

"We received their distress call from one of your commbouys in a near by mass relay. We went on to investigate and found that collectors were abducting the fehl prime colonists. We disabled their ship, infiltrated it and saved the colonists and your squad survivors" said fred. The councilors were taken back at themention of collectors. They didn't believe shepard when he told that. But as they heard the same from these strangers, they started to give some thoughts on that.

"Also we heard that commander shepard is investigating it" said linda which shocked everyone.

"How the hell do you know about shepard!?" asked councilors in confusion which can also be seen in hackett and the marine's faces.

"Our first ride was to the space station named citadel. An asari captain was our escort. We met the councilors and also your alliance admiral david anderson. He told us everything"

After learning the spartans had visited the citadel and council, they started to tense as they knew the council will do anything to get their hands on them. On the other hand, the 3 defence councilors were wondering if they could get those spartans to join the alliance and have them share their technology with the alliance. They were astounded with the future possibilities of being a powerful race while in possession of their technology. The councilors stared at the spartans like they would do anything to get the spartans to their side. Hackett was wondering if they would ever consider joining the alliance. As an admiral, he knew the logic that these spartans would still be loyal to their UNSC. Now hackett turned to the alliance marines and talked.

"But how did you end up with these people? where are the others? and what of the colonists!?" asked hackett in a raised tone. Then vega went on to explain what happened in the mean time. The arrival of collector ship, abduction of colonists, presence of a covert cerberus operative, death of brood, arrival of the spartans and their heroic acts, saving the colonists and the marine survivors and finally, the destruction of the collector ship by this big vessel.

After hearing this, the councilors were dumbstruck by the fact that 4 spartans managed to take down the entire collector soldiers in the collector vessel. As a proof, cortana provided them of the recorded battle from their suit's video recorder. Hackett was stunned with their powers. They weren't actually fighting, instead they were slaughtering the collectors. Also this video was enough of the evidence that the collectors are real.

"My god! We were so ignorant! The collectors are real and shepard was right after all!" said Vanessa with a frown in her face.

"Council was so ignorant. But i never thought even you would abandon shepard in this situation. He's the second person to get screwed up like this" said kelly which brought the other's attention.

"Indeed! We realize it now and it's too late for us to help which is again our fault. But what does shepard being the 2nd person means?" asked michael in confusion.

"I heard how the citadel council treated the quarians with their problem" replied chief.

"The quarians deserved what was coming for them when they created the geth. They brought this upon themselves! Even we would agree with council's decision for not helping them" said sullivan in a raising tone.

"I dont blame you for the quarians, but let me ask you something. When children make mistakes, does their parents abandon them forever out of hate?...NO!...The council claims themselves to be the overseer of the galactic civilizations. If so, then they must see the other races as their children and help them when needed even if they commit mistakes. But your citadel council is something else. They use their power to rule and forgot to be 'just'. Do you know why our forerunners chose us to be their true successors even after all those fight, its because humanity tried to help the others even after learning that they wouldn't last long..." finished cortana giving an emotional speech.

Even chief and the blue team was surprised. Hackett, Councilors and the three marines were awestrucked with the AI reasoning the value of lives. They were totally left speechless. This is when they realized their mistakes, their wrong mentality. Hackett thought for a moment that the spartans and the AI had clearly shown them that humanity could become much more than what they were. The councilors learned that respect isnt about being powerful, but using the power to be useful to others as much as possible.

"Maybe...you are right!...I dont know how to put it..." staggered vanessa in sadness.

"It's all right. It's just my point of view. If i were harsh, I'm sorry for that" said cortana calmly.

"You dont have to be" said hackett in clear tone and clear mind.

"So..hooh!...I think it's time we left" said fred.

"But have you people given any thought on joining the alliance. With you spartans on our side, we could be more powe-.." talked councilor sullivan immediately got cut off by chief.

"No! We had already decided not to interfere with this galaxy's affairs as we're still bound to the laws and protocols of UNSC. But as soldiers, we sworn to protect humanity and all the innocent lives no matter where. We will continue that here until we find a way home" said chief in a tone that others couldn't refuse it. The councilors were disappointed but they respected their reasons. Though different, they are humans after all. Hackett was not surprised with their decision but was worried if someone would get their hands on their technology.

"Whatever chief! It's good to hear that. And good luck! But be careful, there are a lot of pirate activities in the terminus systems" sadi hackett

"Don't worry admiral. We have studied everything we need to know from the 'Codex' and thorough with your star charts. If anyone so much try to get in our way to cause trouble, they will simply regret it even in their eternity" said cortana which caused a stir in everyone's faces. The spartans finally shaked hands with the admiral and the 3 alliance soldiers and after that, the spartans took off to their ship using the pelican they arrived.

 **Unknown system, Unknown base**

A man in a professional suit was seated in his chair with a cigar in his hands in a large dark room with the only sight of a big star in front of him. An officer came to see him with an urgent message.

"Sir! We have a footage of an unknown ship in a fight against another vessel in the space near fehl prime" the officer said giving him the datapad.

"Why haven't i heard from my source there for a long time?" asked the man in a calm yet commanding tone.

"I...don't know sir!" said the officer slightly tensed. There was a pause.

"You may go" said the man and the officer exited the room.

The dim light of star falls on his face by which barely his face can be seen. He has a 'granpa' style hair patches in the sides with a pair of blue bionic lens in his eyes. The Illusive man, is the leader of the human pro-centric group called the 'Cerberus'. He just viewed the datapad and saw full details of a giant unknown ship in battle with another ship smaller than this vessel. He was staring at the details wondering what it is. Also he learnt that it has no eezo core. Illusive man is usually not a person who shows expressions or emotions in his face. He does that in his mind. In his mind, he was wondering what it was and who its owners were and also amazed with its fire power. A form of mass accelerator but highly powerful to just use a single round to tear the ship apart. Then suddenly his terminal beeped up. He set the datapad aside and sat in his chair started smoking his cigar and turned on the terminal. Then a man who infact is an alliance officer showed up.

"What is it gilbert?" asked illusive man expressionless.

"Sir! you wont believe this! I've got a serious footage about some new people that showed in the vancouver command. I dont know how to explain. I managed to record their full encounter. I'm sending you the footage now. I hope you will know when you see it!" said the alliance officer sending the full recording.

Officer gilbert is infact a covert cerberus operative in the vancouver alliance command. He sends reports directly to illusive man regarding the alliance's plans. So far he managed to keep his cover intact. After the recording was sent, the officer cut the comms immediately. Then the illusive man saw everything. The spartan's arrival from another reality, explanation about their history, their origins, their wars, UNSC, outline of their technology, their complete conversation with the admiral hackett and defence councilors and their departure.

The most intriguing was that blue girl hologram which he learned was an AI and the spartans, their technology, their gigantic vessel and it's arsenal, it's unknown form of FTL they call 'Slipspace' which itself raise a lot of conventional questions in his minds. Illusive man is a kind of person who doesn't set aside matters what others feel as fictional or crazy or unimportant. That is the reason why he's the sole leader and proprietor of the galaxy's most powerful covert organization. He didn't take these spartans lightly. He's now very much interested to learn more about them and also their AI which he felt life-like. The first thing that got into his mind was to capture them for study and replicate their technology and even their bio-enhancements. Also to get atleast a piece of their technology to reproduce. He felt that, with that much power, cerberus could advance humanity to a whole new level and even overthrow the citadel government thus focusing on bigger problems. But he knew that's not easy. He saw the way spartans fought the entire collector army. It was a mass slaughter. Also the one called 'Masterchief' is even more unique among the spartans. His armor was very different and looked more deadly even in sight. He then decided to capture him specifically, if not the others. But that would need careful timing and planning which he knew that and illusive man is a man of patience after all. Also he was interested in these forerunners and from the footage, he learned that they were powerful enough to rule the whole galaxy with an iron fist. Though these UNSC soldiers are not native to this reality, Illusive man thought that these spartans represent the best humanity could offer and that they could set an example that humanity can indeed become a dominating force. With that, he switched off the terminal and had a sip of an expensive wine and a smoke.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

The crew went to the bridge and had their respective seats.

 **"** So, That went well!" said cortana crossing her arms

"I never expected you to melt their hearts with that speech!" said chief in a chuckling manner.

"Not everyone is a caveman like you always swinging the club!" replied cortana with a smirk to which he simply stared and then talked. Others were simply chuckling at that.

"I do care about oth-..."

"I know! i was just kidd-..." suddenly cortana's face turned serious. Chief and the blue team noticed it. After a pause they asked her,

"What is it cortana!?" asked linda.

"Oh NO!" was the reply from her with a frown. Chief repeatedly asked her what is it.

"Chief, Through the charon mass relay, i used a slipspace comm to connect with the other relay commbouys for any information and i found this" said cortana bringing up the galactic map and then highlighting a point in the far rim. Then it zoomed to reveal a star system.

"This star is acting strange. If my datas are correct, It will turn into a red giant in 5 more days and consumes all the planets" said cortana seriously.

"Where is it?"

"It's a system this galaxy call 'Dholen' in the far rim"

"Isn't that normal for a star?" asked chief.

"Yes! but not this soon and also I'm seeing signal broadcasting from one of the system's planet. There must be someone. We gotta warn them chief, before it's too late". Chief and the blue team accepted this and became ready for this next mission.

"Cortana! Set the coordinates and enter slipspace when ready! What's the ETA?" ordered chief.

"On it chief and the ETA at full drive ouput will be 30 hours but we wont be able to use the drive for quite sometime after that."

"Ship's sensors are online" said kelly

"Weapon systems are online. In ship defence protocols are initiated" said fred.

"Huragoks are reading the reactors and thrusters good" said linda

"Alright team! Let's vanish" said chief. Then the ship left earth in the slipspace to their destination.

 **A/N: Finally the spartans are gonna meet Shepard and co. and the quarians at the same time in haestorm in a troubling situation. For someone who asked me will the spartans help quarians?...The answer is Yes and in a way no one expected.**

 **Dont forget to review.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I donot own Halo or Mass effect**

 **Chapter 8: Two heroes**

 **Citadel council, Council chamber**

The 3 councilors Tevos, Sparatus, Valern were discussing about the recent events, the spartans. Though they let them go, they were still wary of them and even more troubled with the possession of an AI that exhibits human behavior. They felt the spartans were not completely honest with them. The technology, their ship, their weapons, armors and even their augmentations are so strange. Now they are even more frustrated with the recent events. The news of the collector fight had reached them through thessia command.

"You know!? we shouldn't have let those strangers to become freelancers in our galaxy and to top it all, they have a lifelike AI with them!" yelled sparatus in frustration. He never trusted those spartans. Nylis might have confirmed their words, but he still dont trust them.

"I accept sparatus, but we are faced with an even more troubling information. The spartans and our captian nylis had encountered what we knew as myths, The collectors. And above that, she had departed from the spartans to get the information to thessia command" said Tevos changing the subject. This news was not only confusing but frustrating as well. The council never believed in collectors or reapers.

"Then she must be ly-...did you say she left the spartans!?" asked Sparatus in shock and tense to which Tevos nodded. The threat of the collector was overshadowed with these new found trouble of free lancing spartans. Valern remained silent for the whole time thinking about something else.

"Is she mad!? Or the spartans should have corrupted her to escape our watch. Either way, we are in for great trouble!" said sparatus angrily.

"Words can lie sparatus, but not the asari meld" said Tevos to which he became silent. Then she continued to speak.

"The spartans and nylis managed to resque some alliance soldiers, colonists of fehl prime and one of our people named treeya from a collector vessel" explained Tevos.

"Is this some new found loyalty to the spartans Tevos?, for saving one of your people that you are ready to believe them?" asked sparatus questioning her motives.

"By the goddess! just let me speak councilor! Treeya has relevant data about the collectors in her omni-tool and to top it all, The melding showed she was telling the truth and that she knew the secrets of who the collectors really were" said Tevos which made the other councilor's face to get serious. She was awefully calm after learning all the information that treeya provided. She never believed in collectors or reapers. But after learning the truth, she came to the conclusion that they were already past getting afraid or angry and that it was their time to act.

"Huh! Till yesterday, We were in agreement to never to talk about them. We agreed on how much they served as a conspiracy and lame excuse for wrong doings. Now you, the asari councilor is taking it as fact. Why?" asked Sparatus now thinking Tevos had become crazy. This irritated Tevos even more, but Valern chose to speak.

"The possible answer is that we had been ignorant of their existence" which shocked both Tevos and Sparatus. Tevos was wondering if the salarian already knew anything about them. Sparatus felt like he too had gone crazy.

"What did you say valern?" asked sparatus.

"I'm saying that the collectors are real and were indeed abducting humans for 2 years" said valern which made their eyes to widen. Both looked at him like they were looking for an explanation. He noticed their reactions and started speaking.

"One of our STG spy satellites in the terminus systems took a recording of this incident" said valern accessing her omni-tool showing them a video in a near by big display. The next thing they saw simply made their jaws drop and eyes widen. The video showed a strange ship leaving a planet and suddenly getting shutdown by what appears to be an EMP in the orbit by this massive UNSC vessel. Then a small drop ship from the UNSC vessel entering the strange ship. Then after sometime, the departure of human colonists in 4 strange stealth class frigates. Finally the return of the drop ship. But what they saw next was mind blowing to them. The massive ship fired what appeared to be a slug accelerated at high velocity. That one slug bypassed its barriers like it was nothing and tore the ship to pieces.

"Spirits! Their ship is highly powerful. To say that this UNSC technology puts our fleet to shame." exclaimed sparatus with his eyes widened. Tevos was still searching for words to explain what she had seen. Valern though surprised with their technological might kept his expressions within himself keeping his fingers over his chin wondering if the spartans had already found the spy satellite and simply chose not to interfere.

"Our STG spy network is a force to be reckoned with" said valern as a statement which both the asari and the turian acknowledged. They realized that all they saw were indeed true and it came from one of the councilor himself and from a race whose spy network strength are un-paralled. Tevos and sparatus frowned at this new found feed. Sparatus who always doubt everything even though it played well to his advantage, realized that the council is not aware of much events in the galaxy though ruling for centuries.

"So many years we had been in illusion of how the galaxy appeared to them from what it had truely been" said sparatus so sad like the council failed to do what was necessary.

"I agree with you sparatus. Seems our spectre was right after all and it was our own mistake for not helping him that forced him to join the terrorists" said Tevos with equal sadness. Valern didn't speak.

"Now I'm wondering if shepard was also right about the reapers" said Tevos which brought their attention

"Tevos, Shepard might be right about the collectors at least now, with the evidence, but that doesn't mean the same about the reapers. We have no evidence on that. The ship that attacked the citadel 2 years ago is not a reaper as what shepard said. We agreed that it was nothing but a geth ship" said sparatus in a way to make sure the others agreed on that.

"Maybe, but what if that too turns out to be a nasty surprise? Then it will be in all our head. Let us leave that for now and consider the situation at hand, Dont you think we have to inform councilor udina about this?" asked Valern which took the other 2 councilors a step back.

"NO! Listen, I dont sound selfish, but...Do you know how deep the council structure will be broken if others learned of this truth?...The next thing we'll see is a mass rebellion against us...Everyone will lose the faith in council to whom we fed our beliefs" said Tevos tensed, not amused with valern's idea.

"Then, are we going to simply stand and watch?" asked valern furiously

"No. We will act when the time's right" said Tevos trying to calm him down.

"Tevos is right Valern. Ok, I get it. we made a mistake being ignorant. But that should not become our end. Instead we can silently focus on any new threat that can possible emerge in the future...Even if it's about reapers" said sparatus thinking that public revelation of this incident is more dangerous than reapers.

Valern simply looked at both. Deep inside him, even he knew that's the fact. But also he felt that it should have been their duty protecting others when needed and now that they had failed. Their ignorance had caused humans to lose a lot of people in 10 colonies. But just like they mentioned, it is indeed dangerous if they let this information slip out.

"You both are right. This may raise some moral issues and above all, shepard is doing fine against the collectors. And then we have these spartans who prove that collectors are no match for them. If shepard meets them, together they can put down this threat." said valern.

"But these spartans though humans are strangers to this galaxy. Why do they help us? Why do they risk themselves with this threat? Do they have their own agendas!? Also what about the AI they possess?" asked sparatus with doubts.

"We will deal with the AI issue afterwards" said Tevos

Even after producing the evidences, the 3 councilors were still wary of them and found hard to believe that they emerged from another reality. Still they sometimes felt themselves stupid to have believed their story. But on the other hand, the unknown technology they possess that doesn't base any eezo kept tinkling their mind. Also they were slightly infuriated that the spartans refused to share their technology.

"The only answer for now is that so far, they never showed any hostile intentions. They just saved a human colony. Though letting them to be free lancers is still troubling, i think there are bigger things that require our attention, isn't it?" said Tevos.

"You are right. These spartans though loyal to their organization not native to this galaxy, Still willing to help the others. In simple words, They are just doing their duty as soldiers just in an unknown domain." finished Valern. Sparatus hesitatingly acknowledged. Infact he was tempted to order his people fleet to capture the spartans and their ship with brute force necessary to study them. But he doesn't know that their ship is capable of cleansing a planet. The councilors finished their debate. Udina was not present as he was busy with anderson in the human embassy office.

 **Normandy SR-2**

 **Mean while,**

When commander shepard made his alliance with the cerberus, much was kept from him even by the alliance people and the council. But the news surrounding him spread like wild fire to the whole galaxy. After playing dead for 2 years, life was so hard for him when he was resurrected by cerberus. Some even went so far to call him humanity's traitor for keeping what appears to be a temporary alliance. One such person was this alliance marine and a woman he once loved and cared deeply, Operations chief Ashley williams.

When shepard was on his mission to horizon after learning from illusive man about the collector's possible attempt to abduct the colonists there, He went on to investigate the situation and found the collectors had already beat them to the colony and were about to pack the other humans in the pods. Shepard and his crew though managed to save few, couldn't save everyone. This is when he saw ashley which not only surprised him but also his feelings for her once again awoken seeing her after 2 years. Ashley reflected the same but was deeply disappointed with his misplaced loyalty towards cerberus. She even called him traitor though she hesitated that broke shepard down. But he knew that he cannot let his feelings jeopardize his mission to save the humanity from the collectors.

Currently, The normandy is headed towards a mass relay that will take them to dholen system. He's on his mission to recruit his quarian friend Tali zorah. Commander shepard went on to see garrus in the ship's weapon system room to have a chat with him.

"Hello shepard! need me for something?" asked his long time friend.

"Nothing garrus. Just came to see you..." said shepard with a little bit of sadness in his voice. Garrus noticed it.

"But your face tells a different story shepard. Are you still thinking of what ashley said?" asked garrus correctly guessing over his thoughts. If someone's capable of predicting shepard's mentality, It's garrus vakarian.

"I won't lie" was shepard's response which garrus confirmed what he thought was true.

"Shepard, Ashley just spoke out of her loyalty to alliance, but that doesn't mean she hates you. It's because she cared so much for you, she is disappointed"

"*SIGH*...But she called me a traitor!...Sometimes i too feel like that" said shepard frowned.

"This isn't the shepard i used to know! The commander i knew never let his personal feelings interfere with his duties. You dont have to regret anything shepard. You joined cerberus because when you warned others of the real dangers that lay ahead of us, everyone ignored you and pay the price for ignorance. You and cerberus share a common goal but not common agenda. You do this for the galaxy's well being whereas cerberus see these collectors and reapers as a hindrance to their malevolent dominance" said garrus comforting him. Shepard thought for a moment and realized garrus was indeed right. He's fighting for everyone. He remembered liara's words

 _"Let's just hope the galaxy's worthy of your efforts!"_

"You are right. People are sloppy, but they deserve better. Thank you garrus for reminding me what am i fighting for" said shepard clearing his thoughts cheerfully.

"Hey! That's what i'm here for" said garrus with a shrug. Then joker came over the comms.

"Commander, We are near the relay and we're gonna make a jump in about a minute."

"Roger that joker"..."EDI, ask miranda and mordin to suit up and wait in the hanger bay"

"Yes shepard"

"Garrus...you're gonna come with me too, so suit up and wait with the others" ordered commander to which he nodded.

"It's been a long time since i saw tali. Hope it gets better" said garrus to which shepard nodded and left. Garrus too left to suit up and wait in the hanger.

So far shepard had completed almost all his missions. He has recruited everyone except tali. Also admiral hackett asked him a personal favor to resque an alliance operative kenson from the batarian controlled viper nebula. Then his main mission to acquire the reaper IFF module from an ancient derelict reaper to safely navigate through the omega-4 relay.

Shepard went to his cabin to suit up. He wore cerberus 'Ajax' armor and then went to the armory to load up his Revenant assault rifle, M-920 Cain and M-22 Eviscerator shotgun. Shepard being a vanguard class fighter also makes him a more powerful biotic. After loading up his weapons, he went to hanger bay to meet his team members who's gonna assist him in this mission.

"Commander, we've jumped into the relay and will be in the destination in few minutes" said joker over the comms.

"Thanks for the info joker" said shepard.

"So shepard, what's this about?" asked the second in command, Miranda lawson.

"Illusive man sent a dossier on someone from the planet we're headed to. But luckily, it's none other than who we met on freedom's progress"

"That quarian friend of yours?" asked lawson not shocked as illusive man himself had the quarian's dossier.

"Yes. It'll be good to have a tech expert among us. We'll need all the help we can get" said shepard.

"We are exiting the FTL...What the hell!" said joker in shock.

"What is it joker?" asked shepard

"Shepard, our sensors have picked up an unknown vessel near by the same planet we're headed to...and it's...big" replied EDI

 **15 Minutes before Normandy SR-2's arrival...**

The Dawn exited the slipspace in the dholen system 5000 kms from the planet where they read lifesigns.

"Wow! The solar output is high enough to erode our ship's hull if not for the energy shields. Also it's too bright than usual...Activating solar filters" said cortana bringing up the filters that suddenly enveloped the glass windows in the bridge to decrease the brightness.

"Cortana, tell me what information you have on this star" said chief. Then a 3D holo display of the star appeared in front of chief.

"This star is a young one and with reference to the existing data on these star classes, The core should sustain fusion for at least another one billion years. But the core of this star is so massive such that it's gravity force is powerful enough to create very high rate of fusion, which means it's burning hydrogen faster than a normal star" explained cortana for which the blue team got the whole picture.

"Thus a premature aging into a red giant" finished chief to which she nodded. But what really trouble them is that there are life signs in one of its planet and that they only got 2 more days.

"What about the life signs we see in the planet?" asked linda pointing out the haestorm.

"I'm detecting quarian life signs in that sector and...also some robo-...Shit! Its the geth!" said cortana tensed and also showing the display of haestorm's surface where they detect those life signs. The word 'geth' sounded an alarm in the blue team's mind. They were wondering what the quarians and the geth were doing in this soon to be destroyed system.

"Quarians and the geth! I think it's not gonna end well. We better get down there and warn them" said kelly. Chief took a moment to think but fred spoke suddenly.

"Chief, our sensors are picking up a ship of unknown origin approaching our position in FTL" Fred's terminal showed the image of the ship. As the ships in this galaxy travel at FTL in the normal space, Their sensors can pick up their signature even at FTL. Then the ship's 3D display popped up in front of chief.

"That ship's smaller than our sahara heavy prowlers!" said cortana. Then after 5seconds, the ship exited near by the planet but far from the UNSC ship. Everyone saw the ship in detail. To say that they were quite impressed.

"The ship's small, but it's arsenals say otherwise! This must be some one-of-a-kind vessel" said linda.

"Cortana, what about it's crew? Are they-" asked chief to which cortana immediately gave the answer.

"It's the humans!...But the ship's design is familiar. I think i've seen something like this in the codex. Gimme a moment..." said cortana started analyzing for relevant datas. Finally she found the answer she looked for and turned to chief with a smile of amazement.

"Chief, This vessel!...It's the Normandy. An alliance-turian joint operation vessel commanded by none other than the guy, Commander Shepard!". Everyone looked at cortana. Finally they are relieved that they had come into contact of the very person who saved this galaxy 2 years back.

"It's been three days since we came to this reality. And now, we had found someone exactly who's gonna help us in accomplishing our mission" said chief to which others nodded. They were sent from Iridescent to do something unimaginable, but here they are now moments away from attaining their goal. If the spartans want to help this galaxy, Then they need to meet this person who had already faced the inevitable threat.

"But it's slightly different and bigger than the one in codex" said cortana in confusion. Chief and his team felt that this could even be a trap, but they were unsure.

 **Normandy SR-2**

EDI just told the crew that they had detected a massive ship holding its position few hundred kms from their position and also that it's design is of unknown origins.

"What kind of ship is that? Is it the geth?" asked shepard. Others were curious too.

"Negative. Man!...the sensor readings just blew up the sky! Commander...the ship's reading 5kms long and not a trace of eezo in it! said joker over the comms so shockingly. The crew was thrown back with this information. Their eyes widened with disbelief.

"What the shit! There's no way a ship that long can run with eezo not without getting bankrupt" said garrus.

"How!? A ship 5 kms long without eezo!?" miranda gasped in disbelief. She knew that cerberus haven't involved in any unconventional projects. She started to wonder and at the same time feared if they got into first contact with a new race.

"Hmm..intriguing! eezo, heart of the galactic civilization, but the new ship powered without it? only one possibility...An extra galactic species." said mordin after analyzing the situation. Though this sounded crazy, they too felt the same thing.

"Let's not jump into conclusions mordin" said shepard. He's slightly tensed with this new ship especially with it's size and it's lack of eezo. Everyone in the galaxy knew that eezo being limited, The size of ships too. Hence any ship bigger than the permitted limit can never use eezo cores. The factors are its consumption rate, cost and it's availability.

"Try establishing contact. If they are not hostile, then we can have a meeting or...We take them out" said shepard.

"Roger that commander" replied joker.

"Team, it looks like tali has to wait for some time" said shepard. Other were thrilled at the same time tensed with this.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

"Chief! They are hailing us" said kelly. Chief looked up seriously.

"Cortana, is their comm channel compatible us?"

"One moment..."..."Finished channel decryption. New algorithms defined. You can respond now" said cortana. Then everyone heard a male voice speaking from the comm.

"Attention unidentified vessel! This is flight lieutenant Jeff moreau of the Normandy SR-2. We thereby ask you to identify yourself".

Chief decided to speak after a pause.

"This is Master chief petty officer spartan 117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. I need to speak with the commanding officer of the vessel" said chief expecting a positive reply.

 **Normandy SR-2**

"This is Masterchief petty officer spartan 117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn. I need to speak with the commanding officer of the vessel"

Joker was wondering what this fuss was all about. He looked at the hologram of EDI to his left expecting her to say something. But they were very much surprised to hear a human voice and even the rank sound like human navy. That also brought a shock to their faces. They had never heard of any UNSC and spartan.

"UNSC? Spartan? From what hell-hole did they come from!? EDI, do you have any information on this UNSC and spartan?" asked joker in confusion.

"No . This faction is new and also there's no information on spartan except that they are ancient greek warriors from the city of sparta" said EDI in a flat tone with little humor. Joker simply nodded his head with a smirk.

"But it seems that they dont show hostile intentions. Though it's advisable to learn what race they represent" said EDI

"Yeah mum!" murmured joker and then spoke over the comms.

"Before that, We need to know what species you represent" said joker. After a pause, he got the reply.

"Humans. And also we would like to meet you aboard our ship" This was shocking for them as these strangers are humans. The only humans in this galaxy are pirates and the systems alliance. There's no UNSC or spartans which was quite disturbing.

"I'm sorry..sir?...But that decision lies with our commanding officer. Give me a minute" said joker.

"Very well " said chief. Then joker spoke to commander.

"Commander, we just talked to these...people in this new vessel. They are humans from a faction they call UNSC" said joker. Shepard and his crew were surprised and became silent.

"What!? They're humans? But we dont know any UNSC" said miranda lawson frustratingly. Garrus and mordin nodded in response. Shepard didn't want think hard.

"Joker, what are their intentions?" asked shepard.

"They didnt show any hostility and they are asking you to meet them aboard their ship"

There was a slight tense among the crew. They were wondering why they asked them to meet willingly. But shepard is very much eager to meet them as much as he wanted get this over with as he already got a mission to do.

"Patch me through joker, I wanna talk to them" said shepard.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

Chief and the blue team were waiting for the reply and finally the person they were eager to see talked.

"This is commander shepard of the Normandy SR-2. I heard you wanted to talk to me aboard your ship"

"Indeed commander" said chief.

"Very well. How are we suppose to enter your vessel?" asked shepard.

"Bring your vessel towards one of our hanger bay. We are sending you a homing beacon for directions". There was a moment of pause.

"What? Did you ask me to bring my ship in to yours?" asked shepard with a tone of surprise.

"Of course commander. Our hanger doors can let in vessels bigger than yours. So just follow the signal. We'll be waiting for you" said chief.

"Well...So be it" said shepard and with that the comm was cut.

 **Normandy SR-2**

Shepard asked EDI to have all the recruits to come to the hanger. After sometime, the remaining team members jacob, jack, samara, thane, grunt, zaeed, kasumi came to the hanger.

"Shepard, what's this new big ship i keep hearing about?" asked Thane. Shepard talked after a sigh.

"Guyz, it looks like we got a first contact scenario"

"What!? Who are they?" asked kasumi

"We have no idea, but they call themselves humans" answered garrus

"Humans? are they alliance or any pirate groups from the terminus?" asked grunt with a grin like he was waiting for a fight.

"No. But there's one way to find out. We..uh...I've been invited aboard. But i want you all to assist me...in case..."

"We understand shepard" came the asari voice which was samara.

Jacob didn't speak up but in his mind, he was interested in meeting them. Jack, she looked like she never cared about the situation but will be ready throw shit if needed. Zaeed simply stood besides shepard.

"Shepard, I hope you know what you are doing? We dont know anything about them" said miranda worried.

"That's the reason why i want to get this over with...Joker! follow the signal, bring us inside that ship" ordered shepard.

"They say they are humans, who could it actually be?" asked mordin in confusion.

"Yes shepard, Just hopin it doesnt turns out to be a nasty surprise" said garrus

"Just one way to find out garrus. Everyone! be ready" said shepard.

 **Normandy cockpit...**

"Holy hell! Look at the size of the thing!" exclaimed joker following the signal to the hanger. Joker was wondering if it's really a human ship as they say.

"Mr. Moreau, I'm detecting a power source in the ship that equals the output of a red super giant and also a lot of gravitational distortions somehow connected to its propulsion systems" said EDI which made joker to pause running his hands over the computer. He stared at EDI with the information.

"Gravity distortions! Those things involve use of Eezo. Either you are wrong or these mystery jar heads should have lied"

"I just tell what i see " replied EDI calmly. Joker then continued using his terminal. He's totally dumbstruck after getting a closer view of the ship. His eyes widened and jaws dropped in disbelief. The hanger door was big enough to fit a vessel bigger than normandy. He then talked to shepard over the comms.

"Approaching the hanger commander"..."Shit! it's bigger!" thought joker.

"Roger that joker" replied commander.

 **UNSC Imperial Dawn**

The UNSC people received a transmission from the normandy.

"This is lieutenant jeff moreau to the UNSC. We are approaching the hanger"

"Roger that lieutenant. We'll meet you there" said chief then asked cortana to pop up in the hanger.

"Alright team. Let's welcome our guests" said chief. Cortana vanished into the projector. The blue team left the bridge and went to the hanger. They also loaded themselves with the weapons. Others carried their usual weapons but chief carried a Z-130 DE rifle, 2 type 54 DE pistols. Everyone went to the hanger. The blast door opened and the hard light barrier was disabled.

"Normandy you are cleared to enter" said cortana.

"Affirmative" came the joker's voice.

Everyone watched the vessel enter the hanger. It was quite small compared to the sahara heavy prowler. Then it touched the ground facing the spartans. The hard light barrier was engaged to seal the bay. The Normandy's hanger doors opened and out came 10 people. One was wearing an armor, other one was a turian which they identified from codex. Then a salarian but was wearing a professional doctor suit and at last a woman dressed like an operative. Following them were an asari, 3 humans, a krogan, a drell. The blue team were exchanging looks. They never expected this many people, but could sense that it was for shepard's protection.

The crew were looking around the hanger to see drone like machines flying here and there. Also they saw a big vessel, bigger than normandy a 50 mts above their head. They didn't get to see the huragoks as they were in the engineering. Finally they had a clear view of 4 towering figures in a strange armors. One was even taller than the others with totally different armor, matte black with dark blue line profiles and helmet with golden yellow visor. Everyone were astonished with what they just saw.

"Now, this is what i call 'Real power'" said garrus looking around eyes widened. Others nodded at him. Shepard removed his helmet. The blue team got to see his face finally. He was young man in his early thirty's.

"Welcome aboard. I'm master chief petty officer spartan sierra 117, acting captain of the UNSC Imperial dawn and this is my team" said chief giving his hand for a shake.

"They are big! are they really humans?" shepard thought out loud. Then he warily shakes hand with the gigantic figure that greeted them. Others were tensed to see these 4 humans so big.

"Commander shepard of the systems alliance or former commander of the alliance and these are my crewmen" said shepard.

"To say that you really got a nice tech with you" said kasumi crossing her arms.

Garrus was staring at the 4 figures who appeared unusually big but more human to him. Mordin in fact was processing over 100 possibilities of who these people might be and how they are in possession of this strange technology. Miranda was having a detailed look of everything she can see in the ship including the spartans. She was wondering the same, who they were, where do they come from and most of all, their technology. With her experience as a cerberus officer for a longtime, it weren't difficult for her to realize that everything these people possess doesn't match anything native to this galaxy. She was in fact recording their encounter secretly to send this to the illusive man. Others were simply looking around.

"At last we meet" said fred

"You look like you knew us while we know next to nothing about you" said shepard raising his eyebrow.

"How did you get a ship this big without eezo and why do you call yourself spartan?" asked miranda suspiciously.

"Shepard said you people are from a faction called UNSC and it was evident from the ship's name being written in English clearly shows that you are humans. But, humans dont have anything called UNSC or the spartans?" said kasumi. There was slight pause. The blue team was looking at them and were exchanging looks among them. Then chief spoke up

"I'll just give a short note on who we are" said chief. Others felt the same as they already got a mission to finish. Shepard gave a nod to proceed.

"Just like you said, There's no UNSC in this galaxy" said chief which alarmed the others.

"What do you mean not in this galaxy? are you extra galactic?" asked samara widening her eyes.

"Bullshit! Shepard, I'm not buyin this crap. These freaks look like clowns in a fancy armor and say they are from another galaxy. Dont tell you believe that!" said jack with utter disbelief and dis-respect in her voice. Shepard and the other crew members were stunned and tensed with jack's rubbish talk.

"Ah, come on jack! Dont start another fight!" shepard thought frustratingly. The blue team on the other hand were staring at her.

"You seriously need an attitude adjustment kid" said linda in a threatening voice. Jack was thrown back with the way they called her.

"Jack, I don't want you start another fight..." said shepard to which she nodded hesitatingly.

"Right, I'll get to the point. You say you are from another galaxy? Are there humans in another galaxy?" asked shepard with seriousness.

"We're from the milky way galaxy, but from another reality" said fred. There was an absolute silence for a moment. Everyone were looking at them in disbelief. Some started to think that jack might be right.

"Another reality? you mean alternate universe?" asked mordin with his hand on the chin to which chief nodded.

"Mordin? you are not surprised with that!?" asked shepard in slight disbelief.

"1000 years ago, our scientists postulated a theory of extra dimensions which are in fact universes like ours with events that totally differs with new and unknown possibilities. But they immediately rejected it not wanting to cause a stir in the scientific community"

"Then it looks like your people were right" came a woman's voice and then everyone looked over the pedestal to their right where everyone saw a blue colored hologram of a woman in her twenties standing naked and digital codes and circuitry runner over her. They were stunned after seeing her. At first, everyone assumed it as some VI but soon turned away that thought as it was something else. Everyone turned to the blue team for a response.

"That's our AI" said chief

"You got an AI on board!?" asked miranda in shock. Though they were familiar with EDI, they had never seen an AI that looked very much alive.

"Hi, I'm UNSC AI CTN 0452-9 but you can call me cortana" said cortana crossing her arms with a smile.

"Uh..chief?..mind if i call you that?" asked shepard.

"That would be fine" said chief

"AIs are banned in our galaxy" said shepard and even couldn't believe he's saying that having one in his own vessel.

"I keep hearing that a lot. Listen your problem with the geth dont have any thing to do with us" said cortana

"AIs are like a family in UNSC and an integral part of our UNSC military" said kelly.

They were astonished with the reply. They were shocked that these people knew very much about them. They also couldn't believe that AIs are like a family to them while their galaxy had banned the production of AIs because of geth. Miranda was very much excited with the AI as it would please the illusive man in ways unimaginable.

"So you know a great deal about us. What is this you call spartan?" asked miranda suspiciously and secretly recording everything.

"Spartans are elite soldiers under the UNSC naval special warfare. We are augmented super-soldiers created to fight extreme level threats in the galaxy. And yes, we had access to the information archive you call 'codex' by which we learned everything" replied chief. Everyone were taken back with the information that these spartans are super soldiers. Shepard became cautious and others got slightly tensed and realized that they pack a punch if provoked.

"We also had a meeting with the alliance command on earth. We just gave them everything they need to know about us" said linda.

"You met the alliance on earth?" asked shepard.

"Yes. We talked to this admiral named steven hackett" replied cortana

"Hackett? How come i didn't know that? How long and how much had been kept from me!?" asked shepard angrily.

"Just one reason. You are working for the cerberus" replied chief which shocked everyone. There was a pause.

"How do you about cerberus?" asked garrus with his eyes widened.

"We were told about them. Also we were told you commander, are taking down an alien faction called collectors" said cortana. Shepard and his team members were stunned with much of their knowledge about this galaxy. Miranda from their reply figured that these spartans had been fed with exaggerated informations about cerberus.

"Shit! How much do they really know? Could we really trust them?" thought shepard with tense.

"Commander, We'll tell you everything about us, but not now. First, we need to save those present in this planet" said chief

"What are you talking about?" asked miranda. Cortana brought a hologram of the star system they are in and started to speak.

"We detected an anomaly in this star. It's prematurely aging into a red giant and that's about to happen in 2 days. We scanned the planet and found that there are some quarians and geth forces present in this sector" said cortana highlighting the planet's region.

"My god! A quarian friend of mine is on the surface" said shepard in a raised voice.

"Then we better hurry coz all the planets are gonna die in 2 days" said chief which tensed everyone.

"Garrus, Mordin, Miranda, We'll go down, extract tali and get the hell outta here!...Others get inside the normandy and wait in the orbit" ordered shepard to which they obliged. The normandy got out of the dawn and only shepard and the other three were present.

"Commander, we'll assist you in the surface" said chief

"No! we dont know you. what's th-..." miranda asked and was cut by shepard

"Miranda, we need all the help we can get.." "Chief, we are grateful for this" said shepard. Miranda didn't like this. The blue team nodded. Chief then grabbed cortana's chip and placed it at the back of his helmet. They were wondering, what he was doing.

"We'll get to the surface in one of our pelicans" said chief and then a pelican came near them from the top from a magnetic anchor. Everyone boarded and chief went to the pilot seat to fly the pelican. Then they left the dawn and the hardlight barrier was raised. Cortana then put the ship to lock down. Miranda was staring at the spartans from her seat.

"The reality you come from? You people don't use mass effect technology right?" asked miranda trying to learn everything about them.

"Yes and from our little experience, your techs are less efficient than ours though having quite few advantages over ours" replied kelly. This caused miranda to raise her eyebrow in suspicion.

"Really! what makes you say that?" asked garrus with a smirk.

"You will know when we get down there" said fred.

"If it's really effective as you say, then cerberus might greatly benefit from you people" said miranda straight forward. The 3 spartans were exchanging looks. Shepard was tensed and felt the situations getting out of hand. He spoke immediately.

"Miranda! We got a mission to concentrate. Why don't we talk about this later?" said shepard in a pressing tone. As he was wearing his helmet, she couldn't see his expression. She nodded in hesitation.

 **Don't forget to review.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I donot own halo or mass effect**

 **Chapter 9: Surprise Allies**

 **Haestorm surface**

The blue team and the shepard and company were flying in a pelican gun ship to the ground to fight the geth and save any survivors before its too late.

"Team, We'll touch the ground in 20 seconds" said chief. Others were readying their weapons.

"Chief, I'm detecting 10 geth soldiers near the LZ. Take them out first before we land." said cortana in his helmet's speakers. The pelican reached the surface just 3 feet above. The geth soldiers nearby sensed their presence, and started shooting.

"Wow! what was that?" asked shepard in confusion after hearing repeated hits in the pelican body. But the pelican shields held off long enough as their ammo was less effective.

"We have hostiles in the LZ. Clearing them now" replied chief. Then he started shooting at the geth using the 90mm gauss cannon. It took only seconds to destroy the nearby geth as each shot shattered the geth soldiers to pieces. After clearing the LZ, he spoke.

"Team, The LZ is clear. I'm opening the hatch" said chief and opened the hatch after landing. Shepard, miranda, garrus and mordin came out first followed by blue team. Shepard and his friends were shocked to see what seemed as the shattered geth parts in smoke.

"What the hell!? Did your gunship weapon do this?" asked garrus with his eyes widened. Chief nodded in response. The place they were standing was surrounded by building walls.

"Alright. Linda, you provide sniper support for us. others follow me"

"Alright chief" said linda followed by a nod from fred and kelly.

"Chief, me and my team will cover the right flank, you take the left" said shepard. The blue team armed their weapons. Shepard and his team had never seen weapons like those. Especially, the one chief was carrying is too weird, having a golden orange profiles with a floating part what appears to be a scope. Miranda had her eyes slightly widened after seeing their weapons.

"Those weapons are so strange and why something is floating on this chief's weapon?" thought miranda. Unknown to everyone, she had a bionic eyes that captures the footage of what she sees and make wireless transfer to a recorder.

"Good idea. Let's move" replied chief. Miranda was keen on seeing the spartans in combat. Then they split up. Linda maintained a fair distance from the rest of the blue team and took covering positions for sniper support, While shepard and his team moved as a unit to their right.

"Guyz, be careful under the light. The solar output is very high enough to cause skin burn. So stick to the shadows as much as you can" warned cortana both the blue and shepard.

"Roger" said everyone.

There were buildings and rocky surfaces on both the sides. The whole place looked like an abandoned station. The blue team were moving along the left building shadows while shepard and his team were moving likewise in the right. In the front everyone saw a big horizontal building like structure. There were 2 entry points into that. Chief signaled for them to stop. To get to the other side, they had to go only through this building.

"Motion trackers shows activity in the building" said chief through comms. He felt something was wrong.

"We are entering the structure." said shepard.

"Commander wait!...Team, switch to promethean vision" said chief to his team. Shepard and his team were confused what he was talking about.

"A what vision?" asked shepard in a low voice with confusion. Others were equally confused.

John 117 being a promethean himself, The promethean nano-crawlers in his brain lobes can tune his visual cortex to promethean sight at command. John sent the command and the nanobots did that. Suddenly, the building appeared transparent and he zoomed his sight. Others used the vision in their helmet. Everyone saw what he saw.

"There are 12 geth units in the 1st floor. Also 3 quarians pinned down" said fred to everyone. Out of 12, 4 were so big that would even rival the spartans.

"Looks like no windows, means i cannot provide sniper support" said linda.

"Then we'll infiltrate the building at the same time. Those quarians need our help" said shepard.

"Right" said chief.

"What the geth and quarians are doing here anyway?" asked garrus.

"Don't know. But we'll ask when we see tali" said shepard. Everyone regrouped at the entry.

"Shepard, be careful. Of 12 geth units, 4 were so big and their weapons looked like their version of shotgun" said chief. Shepard knew what he's talking about. He had fought them on eden prime and at the citadel. They were such a pain in the ass. They use shotguns, explosives and even charge forward for melee. Their single punch can drain the kinetic barrier almost completely.

"Must be the destroyers. Shit!" said shepard frustrated. Chief noticed it.

"Chief we need to take them out seperately" said kelly. Chief nodded.

"I have a plan. We will use active camo to sneak inside and give them a surprise fire" said chief.

"Active camo?" asked miranda.

"Yes, it's our stealth mode" replied fred. Miranda was shocked to hear their suit had ability to turn invisible.

"Cortana, tag those 4 destroyers, we need to take them after the others" said chief.

"Done"

"Right we'll move." said chief and all 4 turned invisible and moved up the stairs. Others were simply stunned.

"Shepard, I need one" said garrus plain and simple in astonishment to which he didnt respond.

"Hm..Stealth..I'm looking forward to their other abilities" said mordin. Everyone moved up the stairs.

The blue team now sneaked up and took covering positions in the big hall. The geth didn't notice them in cloak. The ceiling was 20ft high and was very long. They saw the 3 quarians, but to their disappointment, they were dead. When they deemed the moment right,

"Team, open fire at the smaller units" said chief. They de-cloaked and started shooting.

After hearing the gun shots, shepard and his team entered and started shooting the geth taking covering position. They also saw the 3 dead quarians.

"Looks like those 3 were unlucky bastards" said shepard.

Everyone noticed the spartans raining down the ammo upon the geth. They were dumb struck with the power of these spartan's weapons. It looked like they were using primitive ammo, but highly powerful. But what intrigued them was chief's strange rifle that shot a strange golden orange color glowing rounds. These rounds pierced the geth body easily bypassing the kinetic barrier and also melted their armor and shattered them to pieces.

"Goddammit! Those weapons are powerful. These rounds simply bypass the kinetic barriers" said miranda. The shepard team were not only shooting at the geth but also noticed these spartans.

"Miranda not now" yelled shepard making a kill count.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" yelled garrus throwing a concussive shot at them that blasted a mini geth trooper. The spartans simply made the job easy with their superior fire power.

The destroyers started shooting at the spartans instead of shepard's team as the spartans proved to be a greater threat. The blue teams armor flared in golden color which is their energy shields. The shepard's team was stunned with their armor's power. They shot at them but to no effort. The destroyers had greater barrier strength.

"Chief, These units have thick armor plating and even their barriers are so strong" said cortana in his speakers. The blue team also fired their weapons, but chief's rifle drained one the 4 unit's shields and pierced its body and killed it.

"One down, 3 to go" said chief. The destroyers were shooting their shotgun. Shepard's team couldn't help but take cover as they were too dangerous to even get off from the cover. The spartans even noticed shepard sending a series of strange energy like attack into the ground. It moved from point to point in the floor and hit the geth, but the barriers held long enough. But shepard and his friends were shocked to see the spartans easily destroying a geth destroyer. Chief analyzed the situation. The destroyers seemed more efficient in battle. They think like human soldiers in evading enemy fire. The 3 destroyers were using miniature explosives which were easily brushed off by their shields. But shepard's team cant hold them off. So he made a plan.

"I know what you are thinking, john" said cortana in to his brain catching his thoughts.

"Be ready" was the reply. She smirked inside.

"Guyz, we need to take their shields, i'm gonna engage them in close proximity" said chief to which his team nodded.

"What!? Those destroyers are strong enough to rip you apart. The fighting rule for a destroyer is never engage them at close combat as they are best at it" yelled shepard.

"If you got a death wish, then you are certainly welcome to try" said miranda. Chief simply nodded at it.

"Team, drain their shields." said chief. They concentrated fire on the 3 geth getting out of cover. The geth shotgun rounds were blocked by their armor shields, and only drained them a little. But the rounds from the spartan's weapons grew intense and depleted the geth's shields before they could get to cover again.

"Shields down! chief do it" yelled linda. This is were the shepard's team were about witness the true power of the spartan. Chief holstered his weapon back and immediately charged towards the 3 geth at blinding speed. The geth shot at him continuously, but his shields held off.

"Shit, This guy's fast like a jet" thought shepard with eyes widened.

"What's he doing?" murmured miranda in shock.

In a blink of an eye he neared the 3 desroyers and suddenly jumped high, raised his right hand and punched the ground with a brute force in kneeling position. The punch sent shockwave causing tremors across the whole building and if not for the building's kinetic barrier, it could have collapsed. The 3 geth flew back and hit the walls with greater force and also the shock wave acted like an EMP that fried their shield systems permanently. Shepard's team was caught off balance with the shaking.

"Holy shit! Remind me never to piss them off" said garrus to shepard in shock.

"Their powers and abilities are unimaginable!" said miranda feeling dumb at the sight.

One geth slowly recovered and charged at the spartan and was about punch him. But chief grabbed it's right hand with his own. The geth being robots, their servo motors at the joints were strong, but the battle hardened veteran spartan-promethean was stronger. Chief was holding it for a time, but the geth was about to punch him with it's left arm. Chief ducked under it. After missing the hit, it swung the same left arm in reverse direction. Chief again blocked it with his left hand and pulled the geth to his right side with a force followed by a punch straight in to the geth's chest. The geth fell back and got a mould in the shape of chief's fist. Everyone heard the metal thud. Shepard and his friends were shocked to see the spartan manhandling the geth. Then chief grabbed it's throat with his left hand and lifted off the ground, but another unit was about to punch him. Chief's reflex was stronger as he noticed it quick and immediately grabbed the hand with his right arm and swung it with a force that made it to stumble. The 3rd geth came towards him and used it's right arm to punch him, but he brought the geth he was holding in front as a guard. The geth punched and tore a hole in it's body and killed it. Then chief gave a powerful kick to it that sent it back. He put down the dead geth and went for the one on his right. The geth raised it's right arm to give him a blow but he grabbed by it's fist, pulled it towards him and gave a right knee to it's abdomen that made a heavy dent in it's armor. He grabbed it by it's throat and decapitated it. That leaves only one geth that got recovered from the kick. Chief grabbed it's arms and gave an elbow shot to its face. The force multiplying circuit did it's job well but still these destroyers were stronger as they are experts in close quarter combat. Then he beheaded the last geth by crushing it's neck which after that, the last geth fell lifeless to the ground.

The geth destroyers were indeed tough but no match for a spartan-promethean. After all, he survived an encounter with the most powerful forerunner. After the brutal fight, the blue team came to check on him followed by shepard and co.

"Chief, while fighting the geth, your mind was acting weird like you predicted their moves. What really happened?" asked cortana in confusion. She was monitoring john during the whole fight. She felt something was wrong.

"I dont know. You wont believe me if i told you" said chief.

During the fight, chief's mind was able to see directly through the AI information matrix of the geth. He could see information being passed on between the geth units. He was in fact reading their thoughts thereby easily evading their actions. Although visually he didn't see anything and also this ability is not like hacking, as chief is an organic being. He cannot enter deep into the matrix and see everything including memories and other data caches. Simply his brain was pick up the thoughts that were being transferred between the units and a powerful smart AI can even mask itself from this. For example, he was able to read the geth thoughts, but he couldn't do the same to cortana who's in his neural interface all the time. This ability was because of the new augmentations. Usually forerunner brevet mutations takes years to adapt and assume new form. But chief's gene-song already carried promethean bio-markers and was only one step from unleashing it.

"Then try me" said cortana. With a sigh, chief talked.

"I was able to read the geth's thoughts. I picked up information being transferred between the units about how to tackle me, my strength assessment. I were able to read the geth's successive actions it were about to perform, thus evading it easily." said chief. Cortana took a moment to process what john said.

"John, we talk about this later in the ship. Let's focus on the mission now" said cortana, though her voice felt like she figured out something from this.

"Right"

"Chief, are you alright? you were standing still for quite sometime" asked kelly

"No..uh...nothing" replied chief in a confused tone.

"Chief! what the hell was that!? I mean...you just manhandled 3 geth destroyers" said commander in a yelling tone of surprise and shock.

"Like i said, we spartans are bred for extreme level threats" said chief taking his Z-130 rifle from the back.

"You know shepard, these people would have made saren cry and run for his money" said garrus with a smirk but equally stunned. "That was a mind blowing fight you put chief". Chief simply nodded at him. Miranda on the other hand had recorded everything. She decided to remain silent for the rest of the mission. She just knew who to speak once the mission is done, The Illusive man.

"After this, i need a lot of answers" said shepard in a serious tone.

"And answers, you will get once we are done here." said fred.

"Yes, we'll talk in our ship. Now let's move" said chief. Shepard nodded and they left the big hall. To their right was the exit staircase. They used it to get out of the building and are now in large open space, free to move. They also saw lots of barricade to take covering positions. Far from their position, they saw some building structures.

"Same plan as before. We'll take the right, you take the left" said shepard to which chief nodded. The 2 teams tooks their respective covering positions.

"Chief, i'm picking up lot of geth activity. Looks like they got word of our presence. Lots of geth foot soldiers and...uh...drones, i think so are approaching our position" said cortana.

"ENEMY FIRE!" yelled shepard. Shepard's team started engaging the enemy to the spartan's right side. Chief took notice of that. Their team was faring well.

"CONTACTS!" said kelly which alerted everyone. about 20 geth soldiers were approaching and started shooting at them. Also they saw 5 flying drones taht were shooting at them. Each of the spartans took cover behind one barricade.

"Team, open fire!" said chief and started shooting the geth with his light rifle. Others were shooting their gauss variant guns. Though the shields could take the punishment, still, they are severely out numbered. So they took cover until they are done.

"Fire in the hole!" yelled fred tossing a plasma grenade, that sticked to the metal body of a geth. Before it could act, a big ball of plasma engulfed 5 geth troopers and turned them to dust. That makes 15 geth and 5 drones. Chief holstered his Z-130 and took the 2 type 54 DE pistols and started shooting plasma bolts targeting 2 at a time. The plasma ate the barriers and melted the geth armor plate which then exploded to pieces. Fred used his shotgun to take out 2 geths, linda used her sniper to destroy those drones. Kelly took 2 more geth. The remaining nine geth were given a rain of plasma bolts and gauss projectiles that shattered them to nothing.

"That the last of em'. Let's go and help shepard's team" said cortana. The blue team went to shepard's position.

Shepard's team was faring well as they took 10 geth units. Still there are 7.

"Shepard, the resistance seems to be heavy. The geth must be protecting something here" said mordin.

"I think so. But tali's gonna be in trouble, if we don't reach her in time" said garrus.

"The solar interference is scrambling the comms. We need to get inside the building to contact someone" said shepard. Miranda was shooting at the geth. But everyone suddenly saw a storm of green liquid bolts flying past them that instantly took down 3 geth by eating their armor away.

"What th-..!" said shepard finally saw master chief firing some sort of dual rifle in his hands. His team then took the last of 4 geth. They were stunned some new gun in chief's hand that massacred the geth units. The blue team then approached their position.

"SIGH!..area is secured." said linda.

"Everyone alright?" asked chief to which others nodded.

"Chief, There's too much interference in the comms because of this sunlight. We couldn't raise any surviving quarians here".

"Too much of geth resistance" said fred

"Exactly. These geth must be heavily guarding something. Something that's important to them" said shepard.

"Then we better hurry" said chief. Everyone then went inside the building in front.

 _"...Th...ka...ger...pin..th...geth...needed...assi...anyon...opy_?" shepard's radio came to life.

"Looks like survivors! guyz, set a bridge into the quarian comm channel" said shepard. Everyone's omni tools glowed and beeped. Then a clear quarian voice came out.

"I repeat, this is kaal' reager to any survivors. We're pinned down here. Requesting assitance" came a quarian distress call.

"I tapped into the quarian channel. He's in this same building, in the second floor" said cortana. Shepard nodded and replied.

"This is commander shepard of the alliance. We have your position and getting there now"

"Shepard!..shit...i dont have time for this. Alright, get here fast, i wont hold on for long" came reager's distressed voice.

"On our way" said shepard and closed the channel. Chief opened a mini hologram computer from his left fore-arm and pressed the button in the display. A decryption program to tap into the quarian comm channel was running and finished. Others did the same. Now the blue team can contact the quarians easily.

The 2 teams then used the stairs to their left. There were both geth bodies and quarian bodies lying what seemed like a long bloody fight. But no live hostiles till the second floor. they finally reached the second floor. In front was the open balcony where they saw a quarian taking cover behind a barricade outside the balcony.

"Wow! get down!" yelled fred after seeing a giant geth shooting a big ball of energy. Shepard and his team moved sideways whereas chief came front of blue team and raised his both hands in front which summoned a force field that blocked the explosion. After that he released the field. Others were stunned to see that and had their jaws dropped.

"I dont know what other surprises they still got" said miranda in a suspicious tone. Others were simply speechless.

"Commander!" yelled kaal' reager from the balcony. Shepard saw him. Everyone crouched and went to the balcony and took cover near by him. But after shepard's team, he saw 4 towering figures in a strange armor and got terrified. He even raised his at them.

"What th-..!?" tensed reager.

"Calm down. They are friendlies"said shepard.

"Who are they?" asked kaal' reager in a yelling tone.

"I'll tell you later. You are kaal' reager? the one who called me?" asked shepard

"Yes. What brings you here commander?" asked kaal

"I'm her for my friend Tali' zorah" said shepard. The blue team were firing at the geth units below. Linda used her sniper to take down the geth near by that giant thing that was shooting explosives.

"Tali?..well she's stuck inside that building. The door's locked up behind where she's hiding" said reager pointing out to the building above which the giant geth colossus stands.

"What are you people doing here anyway?" asked shepard.

"Tali's been here for 2 days, said she's been researching something about this star. My team was sent to give protection to her. Now looks like i'm the only one left" said reager. The geth were shooting at their location.

"Chief, looks like they are here for the same thing." said cortana.

"Listen soldier, We know what's happening with the star. Your people really need to leave this system" said chief. Kaal reager was looking in confusion as to who these people were giving orders.

"Why should i have to take orders from you?" growled reager

"Listen to them. They are telling the truth. We'll get you and Tali out this place. Can you shoot?" asked shepard.

"I can. But that colossus's been a pain in the ass for a long time. Make a crack or dent in it's body, it will cover itself for healing and starts pissing us off again from the start. Unless you clear it, no way you're gonna reach Tali" yelled reager.

"Chief look, That colossus is healing itself when hurt. In this way, we can't beat it even with our rifles. We'll need a powerful explosive, like a mini nuke" said cortana privately to chief.

"Commander, we'll need something powerful to tear it apart" said chief.

"Dont worry chief. I have a special package to send it to hell" said shepard retrieving the M-920 CAIN from his back.

"Garrus, get me the nuke pellet." said shepard. Garrus gave him a nuke pellet and load it in the gun.

"Chief, i need 30 seconds to arm it. By the time, could you take care of the other units?" asked shepard.

"We'll take care of it...Team take out all the geth units" said chief. The blue team concentrated fire on the small mobile geth platforms. They were decimated by the impact of their weapon's ammo and the plasma heat. The quarian was stunned to see their strange weapons The blue team took care of all the geth units and by the time, shepard charged the nuke.

"Chief, charging complete. Now i would request you all to take cover" said shepard.

Everyone did as he asked. Then shepard stood up and pulled the trigger. The nuke was under going fission charging. The gun's tip was glowing bright in nuclear fire. The colossus was about to shoot him. But the nuke was fully charged and flew out of the gun at a great speed. Shepard immediately crouched below the barricade. Suddenly everyone heard a ground shaking explosion with a flare. It continued for quite few seconds and stopped. Everyone then stood up including reager who were stunned with the explosive's power. They just saw the building in front where the colossus was standing, only to see that it wasn't there and saw only smoke and flames.

"Wow! Now that's what i call a real fire power" said cortana astonished. Even the blue team felt the same way.

"Alright...uh...I never expected it will end so soon. Anyway, thanks for the help commander. The admiralty board's gonna be happy to hear that tali made it out alive. Though they'll be disappointed with heavy casualties" said reager tired and frowned.

"Still you did a great job without giving up the fight" said chief comforting him. Reager looked at him warily but he felt the giant was right.

"Whoever you are, thanks for the help...Strange, never seen people this big like you 4. What race are you?" asked reager. Shepard and his team were looking at the spartans. The blue team were exchanging looks.

"Think so, having one head, 2 legs and 2 hands doesn't make one human in this reality" said cortana in a humorous tone. Chief didnt respond to that other than mentally giving a sigh. Shepard spoke on their behalf.

"Reager, they are humans and calls themselves spartans. Even i dunno much about them. We'll get the answer after we get tali and get the hell outta this place" said shepard. Reager nodded.

"Where's your friend commander? asked fred

"We need to get inside that building" said shepard pointing the structure in front.

"You wait here reager, while we go in and bring tali" said garrus.

"Right, i need rest anyway" said reager and sat leaning over the barricade.

Others used the stairs and got down to the ground and went near the building. Suddenly a geth prime showed and were about to attack them.

"Whoa! be careful" yelled miranda.

But immediately fred took his dual plasma daggers and struck one to it's chest that pierced it like a hot knife through butter and other to its side neck that totally fried it's internal system. Shepard's team were dumbstruck with what fred did.

"Shit! These spartans could be more helpful in taking down collectors and reapers" shepard thought out loud. Garrus simply had his mouth opened in disbelief. They thought that spartan had made their terrible job so easy. Fred then holstered his daggers back. Everyone then proceeded to move forward.

"Chief, I managed to tap into the geth network. Looks like there are geth units in a100 mile radius from here" said cortana.

"100 mile? you mean, lot's of em?" asked chief.

"Yes. We just cleared only this area. Looks like they are searching for something" said cortana

'What is it?" asked chief now more serious.

"Gimme sometime. I'll look into it" said cortana. Everyone came near a door. Shepard used his omni-tool to hack the door controls and opened it. Everyone went inside only to see lots of dead geth and quarian soldiers. The place was bloody.

"Looks like they fought to protect your quarian friend" said mordin. Shepard simply sighed at the horror.

"Tali' zorah to base camp, come in base camp..." came a voice from a near by terminal. Shepard saw tali's face in the terminal's display. The spartans identified her as female from her voice. Shepard spoke to tali.

"The base camp's done tali" said shepard sadly.

"Shepard! glad to hear from you...wait...what did you say about base camp?" asked tali surprised.

"They are dead, fought the geth to protect you. Kaal reager is waiting outside. He's the only one who made it" said garrus.

"Garrus?..oh... i never wanted anyone die for me. At least reager's safe. Thanks shepard. I'm behind the door, i'll open it now" said tali and opened the door. Everyone holstered their weapons and came near the open door. Tali turned to see shepard.

"Shepard, glad to se-...keelah! who are they?" yelled tali frightened to see 4 towering figures behind shepard's team. She aimed her weapon at them. But the spartans were casual and understood the quarian's fear. Shepard tensed and immediately talked tali down.

"Whoa Tali! wait! They were helping us on the ground against the geth" said shepard. Tali stared at the 4 strange people for sometime, then lowered her gun.

"Uh..right. But who are these people?" asked tali stumbling.

"I'll tell afterwards. First, what were you doing here anyway?" asked shepard.

"I was on a mission to gather data about this star. It's been acting so strange. So admiralty board decided to have me look into it with marines backing me up until we got ambushed" said tali.

"The star's prematurely aging into a red giant and that's gonna happen in 2 days. So we need to get the hell outta here" said chief coming forward. Tali was shocked to hear the strange being talking to her. But she was even more disturbed by the information he gave.

"Excuse me.."

"You can call me chief"

"Yeah...right...Did you say that this star is prematurely aging into a red giant?" asked tali in surprise.

"Yes. But we'll explain it in our ship. We don't have much time" said chief. Tali was wondering how did these people knew about this. But anyway they were right. They need to get outta here.

"Right. We'll get outta here. I'll have the data ready. If admiralty have any problem with that, they can go to hell" said tali. Shepard nodded and turned to chief.

"Chief?"

"Me and my team will take the drop ship. You get the normandy and enter our vessel. We'll talk afterwards" said chief. Tali was totally confused.

"Normandy inside their vessel? What's that supposed to mean?" thought tali.

"Sounds good to me. Let's go" said shepard. With that, every one came out of the building. They saw reager standing at the entrance.

"Tali?" called reager.

"Kaal! Glad you made it" exclaimed tali.

"Yeah. Good to see you too" said reager.

"Reager, you and tali are coming with me aboard the normandy. These people have their dropship waiting. We'll get to the normandy and head to their ship" said shepard.

"Their ship?" again asked tali in confusion. Nothing was making sense after she saw these strange people.

"Yes"..."Joker, you there?"

"Yes commander...Bringing the normandy for extraction" said joker.

"Right. Commander, We'll meet you in our ship" said chief and the blue team took off from the place.

"What are they talking about? Shepard, who are they?" asked tali for the 3rd time.

"Once we get inside their ship, you will know" said garrus. Tali simply nodded in distress.

"Right, everyone get to the extraction point" said shepard and left the place. Miranda having recorded everything, now possess a lengthy footage of this mission to show it to illusive man. They saw the normandy get down. The hanger door opened and everyone boarded.

"Joker, get us inside those spartan's ship" said shepard

"Aye aye commander" replied joker. Tali and reager were looking confused with the word spartan.

"Spartan?" asked tali.

"Yes. I'll explain you everything. Dont ask anymore questions. Even i'm seeking answers from them" said shepard. Tali simply nodded.

Meanwhile, the blue team had boarded the pelican and chief flew it to the dawn.

"Chief, I found what the geth were looking for. The same data about the star" said cortana.

"That's more than coincidence" said chief surprised.

"Yes. Actually, they were studying, so that they could replicate the procedure artificially"

"What!? You mean they are trying to weaponize it?" asked chief.

"Exactly"

"Cortana, we cannot let the geth to leave with this information" said chief

"I know. My analyses show that, the geth needs to get to the near by system to use the mass relay to get to their place to share the data. Before that happens, we can stop them here" said cortana.

Chief flew the pelican and entered the hanger. The hardlight barrier disabled and the pelican entered and touched the ground. The normandy followed them behind. The blue team came out and the pelican was automatically boarded in the magnetic anchor. Then chief used the nearby holo pedestal to insert cortana's chip.

 **Meanwhile in the normandy...**

"KEELAH! That is a giant ship!" exclaimed tali to the level of getting a heart attack.

"The one you called spartans, Do they own it?"

"Yes. Our ship's sensors read it as 5km long"

"Shepard, that's bullshit! This much of big ship will need mountains of piled up eezo, something that's definitely not possible. Are these people some new alien race?" asked tali in disbelief.

"That's the interesting part. First, their ship dont use eezo. Second, these spartans are humans with crazy tech" replied garrus.

"What? Humans? When did they grow so big? Even then, their ship doesn't have a human architecture in it. They totally look like an alien craft" exclaimed tali in disbelief.

Being a quarian, she had travelled across the galaxy, learned many things, including every species culture and military doctrine. She now has the experience to even tell to whom a vessel belongs based on just the outer design alone. Tali found these spartan's ship look more alien, so big and most of all, it mirrored a great power. But what concerned her the most is that their ship dont have a trace of eezo. She's excited, but deep inside her she's terrified.

"Commander, We're approaching the hanger" said joker

"Roger that...EDI, have everyone assembled. About time we got some answers to our questions" said shepard.

"As you wish shepard" replied EDI and the comm was cut. After sometime every crew member came to the hanger. Shepard then decided to speak.

"Team, as our little resque mission is over, now it's about time to see through what's really been happening here. These 4 strangers calling themselves spartans, we're gonna talk with them and get answers" said shepard. Everyone nodded in acknowledgement.

 **meanwhile in the dawn...**

Chief, look. The normandy's coming" said linda. The team left that area for the normandy to land. After entering the hanger bay 03, the normandy turned faced its hanger towards the spartan.

"Chief, Are you gonna give answers to everything?" asked cortana

"Yes. And it's about time" said chief.

"But there are cerberus members in the team" said kelly seriously.

"I know. Dont worry, I'll not be specific into everything" said chief. The normandy's bay door opened and out came shepard and his whole team. They were staring at the sentinels flying here and there. The sentinels are controlled by cortana but still given base line programming to perform their tasks on their own. One sentinel major came near shepard's team and opened a mini scanner.

"What th-..! tensed tali pointing her gun towards it.

"Wait! They are just doing their tasks" said kelly.

"What are those?" asked mordin seemingly interested in it.

"They are sentinels, armed with advanced weaponry to eliminate, parasitic threats" said chief. Others thought, they meant, micro-organisms like bacteria and viruse, but chief meant the 'TRUE' parasite of their universe.

"Are they AI?" asked tali in doubt.

" 'SIGH'...No" said fred nodding his head in annoyance.

"Hmm...those are cool techs you got in your arsenal" said jacob taylor.

"Enough. Chief, it's high time you told us about yourself" said shepard getting to the point.

Miranda got her secret bionic recorder ready. Others were eagerly waiting for the spartans to talk. Tali on the hand was giving a glance at the spartans, their armors especially the chief. He was even more different among them. Chief wanted to talk but before he could do that, he wanted to ease another tension, the AI.

"Before i proceed, I would like to show you our 5th member, especially for our quarian friend here" said chief. Shepard, mordin, garrus, miranda knew what he meant by that. They kept silent to not freak tali out. Tali was puzzled with what chief said.

"Cortana" called out chief. Suddenly, from the nearby pedestal, a blue hologram girl appeared, but in a professional scientist suit. She did it to keep up the morale. Even chief and his friends were intrigued with that.

But that wasn't the same for the shepard's other crew members especially tali.

"Hello!" greeted cortana. Tali, just as everyone expected freaked out

"What is that thing? a VI or a-..."

"An AI" finished linda. She immediately raised her gun towards it.

"Are you crazy!? No one told me there's an AI in this ship!" yelled tali.

"Tali, This AI is not like the geth for you to fear" said shepard trying to comfort her.

"Every AI is the same. They always turn against you" yelled tali still pointing her gun. Chief then stepped forward and spoke.

"Listen ms. tali' zorah, Our AI is not like the geth your people created. You will know it once we reveal, who we are" said chief. After sometime, she hesitatingly lowered her guard.

"Ms. Tali, you dont have to fear me. My name's cortana and you can call me by that name" said cortana. Tali was really surprised deep inside her as the AI looked more alive and appeared more human in not just appearance but also the behaviour. A part of her instincts told her to trust that AI though afraid. Suddenly cortana spoke up.

"Chief, I'm reading 3 geth ships approaching our position". She brought a hologram of 3 geth destroyers.

"Bosh'tet! we're trapped" yelled tali. Everyone were tensed.

"Shepard, let's leave and deal with them" said miranda.

"No that would be a mistake" said kelly

"Cortana, can you take out those ships withour heavy laser turrets?" asked chief.

"That wont be a problem" said cortana bringing the turrets online. But before they could fire, the destroyers started firing at them.

"Shit, they are firing at this ship...Chief! lets get outta here" yelled shepard. The destroyers were firing their mass accelerator rounds continuously like rain.

"No need commander...Cortana, how are the shield's holding up?" asked chief.

"So far they just drained 5.1% of shields" said cortana which surprised everyone.

"That's impossible! No ship can withstand that much fire" said tali in shock

"Our's can...lets finish them off" said cortana. Everyone went near the hardlight barrier to have a clear view of what's happening. 3 destroyers were raining them down with their weapons. But what happened next totally made them dumbstrucked in awe. A thick intense laser beam of violet-white color from the ship's side turrets simply drilled a hole into one destroyer and shattered it to pieces. Soon millions of debris formed out of that. The remaining two destroyers tried to out-maneuver the giant ship, but to no avail. The turrets positioned towards it and fired two more lasers that made a clean shot into it blasting them to mini fragments.

"Holy hell! These spartans could be very much helpful in our run against the collectors" said garrus in shock and surprise. Then went back to their original place.

"Chief that was quite a show!" said jacob. Other simply stared at the spartans in terror. Miranda was happy to get the footage.

"Chief, those geth on the surface, they will leave soon with the data" said cortana

"What do you suggest?" asked chief.

"What data?" asked tali.

"The geth were seeking the same datas regarding the star"

"Why do they need it?" asked shepard.

"They are studying it so they could replicate the process. This eventually creates premature supernovas that can be used as weapon" said cortana which shocked everyone.

"No! It should not happen" yelled tali.

"How many geth are there?" asked fred

"I'm reading them for a 100 mile radius" said cortana.

"Whoa..that much? It's gonna be difficult to stop them" said shepard sadly.

"Chief, we can use the dis-integrator beam to burn the 200 mile perimeter, that's our only option" said cortana

"what is that?" asked tali

"That's our ships most powerful weapon" said kelly

"But wont it destroy the whole planet?" asked chief

"A very low output can do the damage we need." said cortana. Others were shocked to hear the ship's most powerful weapon can destroy a whole planet.

"Then do it" said chief

"Alright. Charging the beam' said cortana. The matter dis-integrator beam projector charged up in the ship bow. The lid coveirng the projector's outlet split opened in tapered manner. The bluish-white energy was charging to be fired. Everyone got to see it live. Then all of a sudden, a bright bluish-white beam projected at light speed and bombarded the surface only for 3 seconds. Immediately a big dome of plasma grew on the ground that expanded and burned everything on 200 mile perimeter.

"KEELAH!"

"FUCKING SHIT! yelled zaeed.

"By the goddess!" exclaimed samara. Others were simply silent over this feeling awkward and felt like watching a sci-fi horror. After mere seconds, all that was left of that 200 mile region was nothing but darkened ash and flame. There was absolute silence for quite sometime.

"Did any one make it?" asked chief.

"No. Just dust and echoes. All geth units in the region have been wiped out" said cortana.

Tali watched the destruction caused by these spartan's ship. The quarians were nearing extinction because of the geth. A fight with them mean suicide. But she began to get a flicker of hope after seeing what the spartans did.

"What if they could help my people?" thought tali frowned under the suit.

"Chief, We turians are known well for our military might. But this is not something we use to see everyday in the galaxy. One ship with a planet cracking power?" said garrus eyes widened.

"As the geth situation has been resolved, shall we move to explain who we are?" asked fred to which others nodded.

There was silence for sometime to bring back their whole attention to them.

"Chief?" called cortana with a nod to continue. Once again chief took a glance of his friends and started talking.

"Like we said, we are not from this galaxy or even this universe."

Tali was totally stunned with what chief said.

"Not from this universe!?..shepard?" asked tali in disbelief.

"That's what they said before...But chief. we need evidence to support your claims" said shepard.

"We'll show some videos regarding our history" said chief. Then he signalled cortana to do it. She then proceeded to open a big holo display in front of them.

"And one thing. We've been to citadel and explained ourselves to them. They confirmed our truth through an asari meld. So you dont have to think its forged" said linda to which others nodded, though the news of these spartans visit to the council was slightly disturbing to shepard and miranda. But miranda was worried for a different reason.

The videos played the history of UNSC starting from world war II. They showed how UNSC grew year by year, decade by decade, putting end to world conflicts, signing up treaties.

Shepard and his crew started to find this UNSC interesting. Everyone watched with eagerness.

Then videos of colonization of jupiter moons, luna, mars and the whole solar system by the 22nd century, The rise of civil war which caused significant backlash to UNSC. Colonizations of extra solar planets in other systems, Discovery of slipspace by 24th century by 2 scientists, Formation of unified earth government, conquering of 800 planets in orion arm, Rise of interplanetary civil war, commisioning of supersoldier program dubbed 'ORION', it's pros and cons. Then creation of spartan II program.

Then video proceeded to show spartan II augmentations, MJOLNIR armor. Then the end of insurruction war. The video paused.

"This is the story of UNSC and how it came to be" said kelly.

"So this UNSC has conquered 800 planets in milky way by using this 'slipspace'. It's truly a fascinating technology" said jacob.

"It has to be. It has no restrictions of EEZO based core. Now I see how you people managed to build ships this big" said tali truly fascinated with their feat.

"So the spartan II super soldiers the video showed, are you people from there?" asked thane.

"Yes. We are the last of spartan IIs" said fred. Shepard and his crew were astonished with their history.

"But it doesn't make sense. Your people spent billions for this program just to quell the civil war?" asked zaeed in doubt.

"No. Soon the spartans who were made to stop rebellion, became the first and last line of defence for the entire humanity" said cortana. Everyone were confused.

Then the video continued to show humanity's first contact with the alien collective group called the covenant. Soon everyone saw only horrors. The covenant used their ships to glass human planets. Shepard and his crew were shocked to see the fate of humanity and the power of the covenant. He thought that turian first contact was nothing compared to this.

Battle with the covenant on different worlds. Loss of lives in millions. They also saw the blue team fighting several wars. Everyone including shepard admired chief's leadership. Fall of reach, fall of noble team. Then everyone witnessed the tide turning war, battle of installation 04.

"Holy shit! Is that a ring near that planet?" asked kasumi in awe. Everyone watched a big ring structure floating nearby a planet.

"Yes, it's called 'Halo'. A 10,000 km diameter weapon built by the forerunners that can cause destruction on the galactic scale" replied kelly.

"WHAT? 10,000 kms? you're bull shiting me" said jack. Others were equally stunned. This very much reminded them of mass relays and citadel, but were nothing compared to that ring. And these forerunners sounded very much like the protheans.

"Why would someone built this?" asked thane.

"See the rest" replied cortana proceeded to play the video.

The video showed the fight on the ring's surface with the covenant which everyone felt fascinated to see having atmosphere like a planet. Then it showed the sleeping horrors of the eons, the flood parasite. Shepard and his crew was shocked to see how the flood parasite mutated both alive and dead. This is where they learn the rings purpose and why forerunners built it. Also they learned that there were 7 in total. Then the video showed last of halo -04 battle, then battle of earth, battle of halo -05, civil war in covenant, images of flood gravemind, battle of voi, battle of ark and finally battle of requiem, fighting a living forerunner and reunion on earth. With that the video stopped.

Everyone took their time to process everything they learnt so far. To say, Shepard respected these spartans, in particular this master chief. He was a legend in his own right who ended a 3 decade long war and saved the entire galaxy from the parasite despite losing many he called friends. Mordin respected the UNSC for they made much progress on their own. Tali was astonished with what she saw in their reality. It was spinning their head like a top. She was stunned with the forerunners level of engineering and technology. While this reality had only one AI problem, Their reality played with AI like toys which made tali feel ashamed. Miranda on the other hand was on high alert as careful planning must be made to have spartans side with cerberus. She thought illusive man will do what's best for business at the right place, at the right time.

"What can you tell about these forerunners? They sound much like the protheans in our galaxy" asked samara.

"Actually, forerunners were more ancient than your protheans. Forerunners are a highly technologically advanced race who came into existence 15 million years ago. They were both noble and aggressive. They became extinct a 100,000 years ago after firing the halo arrays."

"Why did they do that?" asked shepard curious.

"Flood parasite over ran the galaxy. It was assimilating the other sentient beings so fast that they lost every world in 1000 years. They decided that starving the flood to death is the only way to kill them. So they built halo rings to kill it's food, the other sentient lives. After activating, Everyone in the galaxy including forerunners died" replied cortana. This is where everyone settled in with the spartan's stories. Shepard and his crew were having their own thoughts and views about the spartans and UNSC. They had been through hell to claim their place. In that perpective, the humans in this galaxy are no different. Shepard walked around here and there from his place thinking about what they learned and started speaking.

"Chief, the humanity in your...universe had progressed so much in a ways we thought impossible. A lot of people in our place can learn many things from you people" said shepard

"Shepard's right. You see, citadel council is the overseer of this galaxy, but they failed to act when they should have at the most needed time. Because of their ignorance, humanity is suffering and before that, the quarians" said garrus. Tali gave a glance at garrus and then lowered her head front.

The spartans and cortana were truely disgusted with this council. Shepard and team were right about them. The spartans knew that the reason they were asked to share their technology with them, just to use it for their own selfish agendas. After all, they were sent from their universe only to help them. So they will do it anyway.

But the UNSC members admired shepard's persistence and his ability to rise against odds. Now they had one reason to help this galaxy, shepard. Even among the people like this council, there are people like shepard, The admiral anderson they met on the citadel. There are still those who trust him and fight besides him. The one good thing council did to shepard was to make him a spectre.

"Chief, You helped us with the geth and did a lot. But you haven't shown your faces" said shepard.

"Before that, we would like to have a private conversation with the commander and Ms. Tali' zorah" said chief. Everyone had their eyebrows raised in confusion.

"What?..That's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna leave our crew members with you unknowns" said miranda tensed.

"It's okay miranda. They are not enemies. Just leave the kodiak here for us and others board the normandy and wait outside this vessel" said shepard.

"But shep-...Ah!...fine" said miranda frustatingly after shepard gave gave a glare.

Everyone got inside the normandy and it slowly lifted off and got outside the dawn. the kodiak was left besides shepard and tali.

"So what do you want to talk to us chief?" asked tali.

Chief looked at his friends and then everyone proceeded to remove their helmets. First they got to see the faces of kelly, fred and linda. Then finally they saw the face of chief. They were shocked and terrified. His face had a look of a person in his thirties but ghostly pale and perfect cut with a short flat top brown hair. What terrified them was his bright yellow orange iris.

"Keelah! what are you!?" asked tali in fear taking a step back, thinking chief is not a human.

"Shit! Chief, you said you were humans. Your friends look human but your eyes say other wise. Even you are taller than them. Care to explain that part?" asked shepard trying to keep his head cool.

"That's the result of my augmentations. I was augmented more than my friends due to my...genetic abilities. But that's not the issue now. I wanted to talk to you both and tell you both our secrets" said chief.

"But..why us?" asked shepard in confusion.

"Because, we didn't want to risk our secrets to the cerberus people in your ship" said fred.

Actually tali and shepard positively acknowledged it. Even they were wary of cerberus after they had been through a lot while fighting the collectors.

"I understand chief. So what's this about" asked shepard. Chief looked at cortana and his friends and then let out a sigh.

"Commander, In our universe, in our milky way, we were investigating an artifact, a portal in actual. We dont know who built it, but whoever it is or was, They were technologically advanced to travel between different universes" said chief where cortana picked up.

"I'm looking on it. Actually, we didn't come here by accident like what other people think, we intentionally travelled here." said cortana

"What? Why would you willingly come to our...universe?" asked shepard in shock, awe, doubt and confusion showing all expressions at a time. Tali was wondering the same.

"Because we received a signal from this place through the portal. But the unbelievable part for you is that this signal or cryptic message whatever it is, was happening even during the time of the forerunners." said chief

"You mean you received signal from our universe for more than a 100,000 years?" asked tali

"Who sent the signal through the artifact? Is there any portal here similar to the one your universe has and someone found it to lure you to this place?" asked shepard.

"We've been trying to trace the signal, but unfortunately we lost track of it when we entered this reality" said kelly.

"But i've enough datas regarding that. If i'm right, there must be another portal here somewhere. Anyhow, if you can get in from a door, you need a same door to get out" said cortana. Shepard and tali understood what cortana said.

"But why would a signal be sent from this place?" asked tali getting to the point.

"And this is where our true purpose in this universe comes into picture. Before that...commander, 2 years back you fought a giant ship that attacked the citadel with the geth army, isn't it?" asked cortana.

"Yes..But how do you know that?" asked shepard with his eyes widened.

"We learnt everything about this galaxy from an information archive called the 'codex'. But, please answer the question" said cortana

"Yes. A rogue turian council spectre named saren brought the ship with geth army and attacked the citadel. After council made me a spectre, i finished him and the ship at the citadel. But like everyone assumes, the ship saren had is not some any other ship. It's actually a sentient AI ship called a 'Reaper'. I tried to explain it, but everyone's skeptical on that part and think's i'm hallucinating" said shepard frowned.

"And we are here for the same thing, the reapers" said linda.

"EXCUSE ME!?" asked tali loudly. Shepard was stunned with the spartans reply.

"We came to this universe because we heard this galaxy is undergoing a constant cycle of extinction every 50,000 years" said chief.

"But how did you know that and why you people dwell on that matter?" asked shepard in shock and confusion.

"Because, our forerunners had sensed this danger for 150,000 years in our universe from the very signal that lured us to this place, Which means 3 cycles of extinction" said cortana that confused them both.

"What kind of signal was that?" asked tali.

"It was neurological in nature. The signal gave our forerunners, a direct vision of the event. Only those minds that are well trained capable of sensing it" said cortana. This reminded shepard of the prothean beacon he encountered on eden prime which burned his brain with reaper visions, which also marked the beginning of his journey in to fighting the reapers.

"But aren't the forerunners extinct? How did you people find it out?" asked shepard.

"We got this information from an archive recovered from a forerunner planet" replied fred. B the time, chief felt something strange. Suddenly started to lose his own mind, felt a kind of emptiness.

"Chief, It's good to hear you people are here to help us against the reapers which is strange enough, but why would you do that? Out of what necessity?" asked shepard.

 _ **"It's because, We fore-runners believe in the mantle of responsibility, our sacrament, our belief that we are the guardians of all life"...**_ "What!?" said chief snapping out of a trance like state unbelieving of what he said even when he said. All he saw then was confused and terrified faces. Shepard and tali were exchanging looks tensed with what chief said. The same goes for his friends and cortana. Even chief was confused what happened to him suddenly.

"Chief, what the hell was that?" asked cortana with her face serious. His fellow spartans came near him and talked.

"Chief! Why did you say something like that?" asked kelly

"Are you all right, chief" asked linda.

" _ **Hmm hmm hmm...At last"**_ came a voice inside chief's head. He suddenly turned his face like he found his surroundings odd.

"Chief, you all right? why are you acting weird?" asked shepard. Tali was only silent for the time being. After a pause, chief spoke.

"No...uh...Nothing. I need to rest. I'll be in the bridge if you need me"..."I'm sorry commander, if you'll excuse me" said chief and left the hanger putting back his helmet and headed to the bridge using the tram system in the ship.

Chief's friends, cortana and shepard, tali were confused as to what happened to chief.

"Cortana, will he be fine?" asked fred

"I dont know fred. Never seen him acting this weird in my life time. Something's troubling him" said cortana deeply worried about her care taker and a close friend.

"May be the geth fight had taken a toll on him" said tali

"No way. Chief had been in war for 30 years. War has never taken a toll on him. This is something else" said cortana.

"By the way, what is the mantle of responsibility he mentioned?" asked shepard

"The mantle is a forerunner's belief that it's their sworn duty to protect life at all cost" replied cortana. They assumed that these forerunners were like gods, but still mortals. But still they felt confused with what chief said all of a sudden. But shepard insisted not to dwell on that.

"And, I know it's not right at this time, but would like to ask you" said shepard

"What is it commander?" asked fred. Shepard took a breath and then spoke.

"We are hunting down a race called collectors and are one step from achieving that. But we will need all the help we can get, even the...unconventional ones" said shepard

"I know. Your admiral anderson in the citadel filled me in" ssaid cortana

'Then i'll ask you straight away. Will you people help us fight the collectors?" asked shepard. There was a pause. Cortana shared a brief with look the blue team members and then cortana spoke up.

"Commander, don't get me wrong, but you already have an impressive team with you. You won't need our help in fighting these collectors though i wont say the same for the reapers" said cortana. It's true that shepard dont need help to fight collectors. he already have a great team with him who would fight to the end. But shepard frowned a bit as he didn't expect this.

"Shepard, she's right. We already are a good team. We can take down the collectors without their help. They said they are willing to help fight against the reapers." said tali comforting shepard.

"Yeah. You're right. We can do this. But thanks cortana, for helping us against the reapers.' said shepard with a smile. Cortana smiled back.

"And check on the masterchief and convey my thanks to him" said shepard.

"Sure commander, and by the way one more thing. Soon we'll find out who and why the signal was sent and who and why someone created a portal to another universe. Then we can have our heads cleared" said cortana to which they nodded. Cortana then gave a special set of codes to shepard to help him contact the spartans on a very secured channel. He thanked her.

"Also Ms tali, After your collector mission is over, we have much to talk with your people. Come find us in this location when you are free" said cortana and gave coordinates to their base.

"Thanks. Though i'm wondering what you people have to talk with ours" said tali in excitement.

"And commander, regarding this secret about us and our base..." said cortana to which shepard continued with a smile.

"Don't worry. Not even death can pull my tongue" said shepard followed by a nod of assurance from tali.

"Thanks commander" said kelly

"No, thank you spartans. It's been my pleasure and honor to meet you people. Farewell" said shepard.

"Keelah' sa lai" said tali to which the four nodded. Then shepard and tali entered the kodiak and flew it to the normandy. The hardlight barrier was raised and the hanger door was closed. The huragoks sent reports on ship's status which was read by cortana.

"Now we have something to tend to" said cortana crossing her arms.

"Yes. Let's get to the bridge" said linda and everyone went to the bridge to see what's troubling their friend.

 **In Normandy SR 2...**

The kodiak entered the hanger and the door was closed. Shepard and tali came to see miranda was waiting for them a long time. She chuckled at shepard and talked.

"Took your time! What did you and the spartans talked?" asked miranda keeping her hands in her hips.

"Sorry miranda, that's classified" said shepard with a smirk.

"And by the way tali, this ship too has an AI, named EDI" said shepard. Tali suddenly stopped walking and stared at shepard.

"Shepard, you really trust cerberus?" asked tali in a trembling voice.

"For now, Yes" said shepard. She nodded simply in dissappointment.

"Huh!...Talkin about classified, uh!" said miranda raising her eyebrow.

"I'm getting to my quarters. If any one need me, give me a call" said shepard and went. They three entered the elevator. Shepard went to his quarters. Tali went to engineering room.

Miranda went to the CIC and from there to the briefing room. The communicator shifted and an orange hologram scanned her. Then in front of her, A man with blue bionic eyes came in a professional suit with a cigar and a glass of expensive wine.

"Sir" saluted lawson

"Good news miranda?" asked the illusive man

"I have the complete recording sir"

"Then send everything to me" said the illusive man taking a sip. Miranda opened her omni-tool to send all the files. Illusive man received a beep sound in his terminal which he looked upon.

"Isn't it about time sir?" asked miranda

"It is ms. lawson. Soon we'll meet them" said the illusive man giving a villainous smile.

 **A/N: Soon the spartans will meet the cerberus and the quarian flotilla in the future. Also in the meantime, chief had run into a new problem. How his friends help him up will be dealt in the forth coming chapters. There are also unexpected surprises waiting for the spartans and cortana.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Take notice of all those changes i mentioned in the author notes in previous chapter.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own halo or mass effect.**

 **Chapter 10: The coup attempt**

The normandy took off from haestorm. Shepard has only two more missions left. One is rescuing doctor Kenson from viper nebula and Tali's trial. Then the only thing that's left is acquiring the reaper IFF from a direlect reaper ship. Things were going smooth so far for the normandy crew. Shepard had to take rest before getting to his personal mission. Before departing from the spartan's ship, chief told shepard that he's going to citadel to meet with admiral Anderson to have conversation regarding the recent events and also try to get the citadel support for Shepard.

Tali' zorah was thinking a lot about those spartans who she found dangerous as well as interesting. She was very much interested in their technology which would help their people in many ways. Just as Miranda lawson planned, she gave all the footage to the illusive man related to the spartans. Now he must be planning how to engage them with causing an incident and getting them to side with the cerberus. There was always a talk among the normandy crew after seeing those spartans and learning their history. Each and every member of the normandy had their own views about them.

But not just normandy, The whole galaxy had learned about the spartan's presence through their encounter with the citadel council. The turians are very much intrigued with the level of technologies these spartans carry. The use of this 'slipspace' which totally eliminates the reliability on element zero and mass effect was both challenging and interesting. Also with the footage they showed to the councilors, the turians realized that humanity if given a chance, could over power everyone in the galaxy. The idea of creating super soldiers to tackle extreme level threats like civil war and extinction through mass genocide felt more needed among them in case a need arise in the future.

The asari on the other hand were astonished with the spartans's ship that dwarfed every ship in the galaxy and also never used a trace of eezo and the principle of mass effect. According to what the spartans had show everyone, this concept of 'slipspace' uses a new field in mathematics and also a lot powerful. The covenant race the spartans mentioned seemed to have built ships that even spans 10-25 kms which made the asari scientists feel dumbstruck. The next interesting thing was their weapons. The asari scientists found the ship's MAC guns, plasma torpedoes, energy projectors mind blowing. The power required for these weapons can easily drain the entire eezo core. But the UNSC uses a lot more weapons like these which they found more surprising.

The salarians on the other hand were very much interested in the place the spartans came from. The race they call forerunners were fascinating to them. The construction of artificial planets, halo rings which are insanely big were beyond what they could grasp. If the spartans ever share their technology with them, no matter how much time it takes, they can try something grand on that scale, at least one. Then the armors and weapons these spartans use were also intriguing to them. The idea of using personal shields was more challenging to them. The amount of energy needed to power the energy shields were beyond their grasp. It gonna take a lot before they could try.

Overall the news of spartans and their possessions spread like a wild fire.

 **Aboard the dawn...**

This day wasn't the best day for the master Chief. In 30 years of war, chief had found himself at odds and many even overwhelming. But what he undergone today was unlike anything he ever felt in his life. Something he never expected from himself. Everything was fine since the day they arrived here.

"What the hell happened to me?" thought Chief in confusion.

Chief used to acknowledge fear as a mere emotion, but never felt it, even now. But he fears what it might mean to his friends. After losing Cortana in mantle's approach, he found himself mourning her loss, thus getting the feeling of the pain of losing someone he cared the most that exponentially grew more than he felt the loss of his fellow spartans.

Cortana popped up from the near by pedestal while his friends are on their way there.

"John" called out Cortana in worry. He suddenly turned to her and spoke without a break.

"Cortana. I don't know what happened, trust me" said Chief tensed a bit. His worst case scenario would be his very friends forced to take him down.

"John, If there's someone I trust with my life, it's you. But this isn't the issue of trust, is it? Clearly I can see a problem and you need help" said Cortana crossing her arms.

Chief never share his problems with the others and that's not due to head weight, but he don't want others to bury themselves with his burden. This time, Cortana's right. He need help even though not for him, at least for the sake of others safety. He gave a sigh and spoke.

"At that time, I felt like I was possessed. I don't know how to put it. But the weird thing is, I know I was possessed. I was aware of what I said but I couldn't control" now looking at Cortana in confusion, "Do you even understand what I said?" asked Chief. Cortana ran her fingers over her chin and soaked in thoughts.

"John, don't worry. We are here for you. I clearly understand your explanation. We'll figure it out" said Cortana.

"But after I said those words, I heard a voice and it was, familiar" thought Chief thinking of the incident. Then his friends finally came to the bridge to check on his friend.

"Chief, you had us worried there. What happened to you?" asked Kelly.

"You spoke like you were somebody" said Fred. Chief simply looked at him.

"People, Let's have this slide for now. He told me everything and I don't think it's a great problem than the one we should worry about" said Cortana trying to ease the three.

"But what happened there says otherwise" said Fred.

"Guyz, I assure you, Chief's alright and I'm aware of that incident and I'll take care of that" said Cortana pressing her voice.

The three exchanged looks and looked at Chief. They didn't know what to say. Even they didn't expect something like this. This brought everyone's attention to the matter at hand.

"Alright, we trust your judgement" said Linda.

"Speaking of which, Why are we still here? Let's get back to our base" said Kelly

"Actually, still 20 days are left to finish the base. It's only been 3 days since we arrived" said Cortana

"But we did a lot in this short time. Anyhow, we need to get out of this system, before the star consumes us" said Linda.

She was right, It might only been 3 days, but they made a mini revolution in this galaxy. Meeting the council, learning everything about this galaxy from the codex, learning the nature of mass relays and the citadel, meeting with this alliance on earth, fighting off the collectors, fighting of geth and saving the quarian survivors, meeting with the commander Shepard. That was lot and still they need 20 days to get to their finished base. until, then, they have no choice but to roam.

"You are right, Cortana, what's the status of the ship?" asked chief

"Huragok's have sent the reports. Fusion core and the dark plasma thrusters are reading good. Slipspace engines have been maintained well after our run and ready for another go" said Cortana. Chief went to his seat and the hologram came in front of him showing the status of ship. Others went to their respective terminals.

"On your word chief" said Kelly.

After all these missions they had so far, chief thought that it's the right time to visit the citadel to talk with admiral David Anderson of the alliance to discuss, what they had ran into so far.

"Cortana, take us to the citadel" said Chief

"Citadel? You really wanna go there?" asked Fred turning to him.

"Don't worry Fred, we're not gonna meet the council. We're going to meet admiral Anderson' said Chief in a casual tone.

"Anderson? yeah. He's a good person you know?...Reminds me of people like captain Lasky, lord Hood, captain Keyes. After everyone abandoned Shepard, he and select few never gave up on him" said Linda.

It's true. Admiral Anderson was and is still a soldier. And he's doing everything in his power to support Shepard though he couldn't do it by himself.

"Right. So cortana, let's vanish" said chief. Cortana gave a smile and engaged the thrusters. The ship moved away from the planet and then jumped into slipspace. The dholen system's left to it's fate.

 **Cerberus base, Unknown location...**

The Illusive man was viewing the footage that Miranda sent him. He was really intrigued with their power. The illusive had seen a lot of things. Collectors, reapers, battle of Shanxi. But this, While it took a lot to finish off a geth fleet and one reaper ship, these spartans carry a power beyond imaginable.

"A weapon capable of burning the whole planet? Not even the reapers could stand this" wondering the Illusive man.

He was wondering, if the ship was indeed those spartan's vessel, because, though not native to this universe, human touch and aestheticism never changes. But this looked like an alien vessel and more majestic.

Then he suddenly got reminded of the alliance covert agent Gilbert's record. According to that, The spartans mentioned something to the alliance personnel regarding an ancient space faring human race and the forerunners in their reality. Both were dominating the milky way though forerunners were the main ruling force.

"If this is true, then humanity by no doubt could achieve a lot, no matter where" thought the Illusive man.

From what the spartans had explained, in their reality, humanity technologically rivaled the forerunners. The undeniable truth is that humans can grow, evolve and adapt on its own without relying on the others just like what every race in this galaxy does including the human systems alliance.

Illusive man always felt that unlike other alien races, humanity should always stand on it's own. That being the very reason why illusive man, a human himself hates the systems alliance. Even the covenant race who were technologically superior to humans feared the might of the spartans on the ground. In that way, the Illusive man admired the spartans and the UNSC. The spartans represented the best humanity could give, he admired theirwill to survive. But on the contrary, humanity here, fears the council for what it might bring upon them for each and every step they take in the galactic stage.

The next thing, he found interesting was their AI. EDI was in fact a rogue VI from luna base. After Shepard disabled it, cerberus captured it and used salvaged reaper technology to upgrade her to an AI. This galaxy had just one problem with AI, the geth. And because of that conflict, the council simply banned everyone from making one. But the place from where the spartans originate, AI had a special place among them even for many millennia. If he can get his hands on the life like AI they possess, he can create more powerful programs to combat the reapers efficiently in cyberwarfare.

It doesn't matter if you are a man out of time or not, but if you decide to take a stand on your own to face the odds, that's when you truly learn what you are capable of. Illusive man firmly believed that. The result of the belief is 'Cerberus'. The UNSC in the other reality had proved themselves time and time again that even when pushed to the brink of extinction, they are still capable of things on their own and believe they still got something to look up to. This made the illusive man to believe that the UNSC is a proof that cerberus is a right and the best thing for humanity's ascension. There was one thing running in his mind.

"Reliability is a plague. Cerberus is it's cure"

He finished seeing the footage. From the records and this footage, Illusive man has enough knowledge about who these spartans are, who do they represent, their history, their times of upheaval, reviving the lost, the wonders about these forerunners and ancient humanity and what they were capable of. Not only the illusive man had set his eyes on these 4 spartans, but also decided to extract more information about these forerunner and ancient human technologies after capturing the spartans. Speaking of which, he need to carefully plan and execute in getting these spartans by force if and all diplomacy fails. He saw what they were truly capable of in haestorm, so he didn't want any nasty surprise. As usual, he sat down on his chair and took a sip of his expensive wine.

But little did he knew about the spartans. He'll learn the hard way that they are called spartans for a reason. Then an agent came in see the Illusive man. He had a blue delumcore overlay in his face, had a small hair tied at the rear head. He looked chinese and wore a black cerberus phantom armor weilding a biotic charged katana.

"Leng" called the IM

"I take it you have an important work for me, sir" said the assassin.

"Yes. You need to infiltrate the citadel. Take 40 men with you. Most of all...Stay covered"

"Consider it done, sir" said the assassin and went off.

 **Citadel, 2 hrs later...**

Udina was talking with Admiral David anderson in the human embassy. Udina still can't believe he failed to get the spartans to join the alliance. With all the powers they have, these spartans would have toppled the entire galactic stage in humanity's favor. But what did they do, simply chose non-interference.

"You know Anderson, It's been only 3 days and few hours since the spartans revealed their existence to this galaxy. But look how much way they paved us for change. In the council chamber, they showed what they got up their sleeve, a strange looking ship with no eezo and mass effect, genetic enhancements, A human like looking AI..It goes on..." said Udina frustrated.

"I don't know why you still dwell on this issue Councilor Udina. Clearly, the spartans mentioned that they wont take sides. But also they mentioned that they will help anyone when needed. You should understand that their authority lies elsewhere. We cannot invoke our authority over them" said Anderson. But deep inside, he felt the same. The spartans presence in the alliance would have favored them in a lot many ways. But their regrets aren't gonna buy them anything.

 **Outside the citadel...**

The Imperial dawn exits the slipspace 100 kms from the citadel. Then it accelerates to hold its position at the defense perimeter.

The citadel command saw the dawn exiting the slipspace. The personnel working there rushed up to see the majestic ship facing them maintaining its position. The none of their flared up and came a voice.

"This is Master chief petty officer Spartan 117 to the citadel command. Requesting to enter the dock".

The command personnel replied to that. "Acknowledged, you can proceed to enter the docks." said the personnel.

 **In the dawn...**

"So, lets get down there. But this time, we're not gonna fly in with the pelican" said Chief that made the others to share looks among themselves. Linda understood what chief meant.

"Shit! Chief not the portals " said Linda crossing her arms. Cortana simply gave a chuckle.

"It's easy you know" said chief with a slight smirk.

"Well, we're not gonna jump from here" said Kelly. The bridge is very big, but not a place to use teleportation.

"Well, we'll use the civilian deck 6 floors above. It's got lot of rooms" said Fred.

"Then let's go" said chief. He took Cortana's chip and inserted into his helmet. Then everyone left the bridge. They went through several turns and several doors, finally reaching the gravity lift. The 4 stepped over the medium sized circular platform. The platform started rising in the air with artificial gravity after chief used the holo panel and took them 6 floors above. Then they came out of the lift. To their right, they saw 2 sentinel major working on something. To their left, was a door. They went through the door and reached the big civilian deck.

"Right. Cortana, teleport us to the dock's surface " said Chief. The 4 were standing side by side with some gap between them.

"Be ready. Checking the coordinates...done" finished Cortana. Then a bright yellow energy field engulfed the four separately and in an instant, both the field and the blue team vanished.

 **Citadel docks...**

There were 2 turian c-sec guards in front of the elevator.

"Check that. The spartans are back. I wonder what they got for the council this time" said guard one.

"Well, why dont you ask them?" said the guard two. Then suddenly they saw 4 bright light forming side by side in a place where the spartans landed their drop ship last time. The guard's eyes widened in shock and fear and raised their rifles toward it.

"What the hell is that?" asked guard one. Then in the next second 4 massive beings popped out of it and the yellow light disappeared. The turian guards lowered their rifles and shared a look of shock and disbelief. They were wondering what it was they came through. Then the spartans approached the officers.

"That was one hell of an entrance" said guard one with a smile.

"Thanks" replied Fred.

"We need to meet Admiral Anderson in the embassy" said the Chief.

"Well, take the elevator and I hope you already know where to go since your last arrival" said the guard two. They gave a nod.

"And don't mind the people staring at you. Even though everyone knows your existence, still they need time to get used to it" said the guard one.

"You don't say" replied Kelly with a chuckle. The 4 then moved towards the elevator.

The door opened and everyone entered. Then chief used a console and the elevator descended downstairs. Actually the spartans found these elevators faster than their UNSC counterparts though they weren't for comfort. The elevator touched down the c-sec academy. The spartans came out and everyone there immediately stared at the four like they have seen something weird. Then after few seconds, the people continued with their work. To their front, there was another elevator that will take them further down to the district. Then they walked towards that elevator and used it to get to the district. As they touched down, they exited to the place that had open environment. There were several pathways, gardens and different people from different races walking here and there. It was a pleasing view.

To their right, they walked the pathway. People took a step back when they see the spartans as they walk big occupying most of the space. They were walking in the alley.

"You know Chief, we should come here often" said Linda looking over the far side.

"Yeah. I started to like this place" said Cortana

"No covenant, no flood, no ONI, who wouldn't want to be in a place like this?" said Fred.

"This place is no different from what we have in ours. In a big place like this, anyone could try something on someone and people are a mile away from help" said Kelly.

"But there's C-sec here. They would keep the perpetrators away" said Chief.

"AAAAHHHHH!..." came a multiple repeated screams from where the spartans were walking. After hearing this, the blue team stopped suddenly. People were running here and there. It was a chaos.

"What the hell!?" said Fred in confusion.

"The voice came from there, let's go check it out" said Chief pointing out a spot in the front. Then everyone ran towards it.

They reached the embassy reception where the people crowded near something, talking among themselves. Chief and his friends moved into the crowd and came at the centre. The people warily looked at the spartans and disbanded away from them. Then the spartans saw a dead turian lying under a pool of his own blood in the floor. There was tension among the civilians. Chief immediately turned around to find no c-sec officer in the vicinity.

"Who's this poor guy?" asked Linda. Chief crouched to take a close look.

"Chief, look's like a clean head shot" said Cortana into his ears. Chief then tuned his sight to promethean vision. He then saw a complete skeletal profile with veins, nerves and silhouette of organs. He then noticed a hole in the skull forehead, but there was no bullet in there. He then switched to normal sight and scanned the turian and a 3D image was displayed in the visor. The complete biological profile was displayed then. He stood up looking for any clue.

"Chief, look over there" said Kelly pointing to the floor some distance away past the dead turian. The spartans walked up to look where Kelly pointed. There they saw a hole in the floor. Chief's visor zoomed the point to measure the hole size. It was same as the hole in the turian's head. They assumed it to be the bullet that killed him.

"Looks like the bullet pierced the turian's head. Must be long range high energy projectile. Someone killed him with a suppressed fire" explained Linda. Linda is a sniper expert in blue team. She knows a sniper kill when she sees one. Then they went again near the turian.

"Does anyone know what happened here?" asked Chief

"Sir?" came a man in his thirties. He was 6'1" tall.

"Would you like to say anything?" asked Kelly

"Yes. Actually, this turian's a C-sec officer" said the man.

"What? And what's a C-sec officer doing in a civilian attire?" asked Fred.

"I dont know. But I ran into him last week, that's how I knew him. His name's...uh...Barion, think so" said the man trying to figure out his full name.

"Chief, I managed to hack in to the C-sec database. This man's right. He's an officer named Maxtus barion. And from his records, it clearly shows that he's an expert in covert ops and was a former soldier in turian military" replied Cortana.

"Chief. What do you think?" asked Fred.

"Looks like someone wants him good as dead" said Linda. Chief nodded and talked to Cortana.

"The turian was shotdown while he was standing here and the bullet pierced his head and hit the floor there, Cortana. The turian stand 6'1" and he was here at this point. Can you simulate the bullet's path?" asked Chief.

"Got it" said Cortana. Then in the chief's visor, A bright thin red line appeared from the floor where the bullet hit. Chief then turned his head to see where the line leads. To the right, past the fountain, gardens and building in the far end, the line ended at the top floor almost into the vanishing point.

"There, someone shot him from that place" said Chief pointing to where the red line ended.

"Wow. The killer had a good vantage point" said Linda.

"What!? how do you know that? The place you point leads to the zakera ward" said the man.

"Then that's our destination. Let's go" said Chief. Then everyone ran towards the other side through the middle bridge like pathway. On the other side, they stood near by the elevator. They entered the elevator and it took them up.

"Cortana, can you bring up this zakera ward's schematics?" asked Kelly.

"Here you go" said Cortana bringing up the ward's complete 3D map in everyone's visor.

"Guyz, it looks like the ward is a cargo processing area. So be careful with lots of moving containers. Our killer could be anywhere" said Cortana.

"Fine. Team ready your weapons" said Chief. Then they summoned their respective weapons from the slipspace as they didn't bring any weapons with them to avoid C-sec from abducting it. Chief used the MA5D Gauss assault rifle, Kelly with type 55 DE rifle, Linda with 99C series-2 Gauss sniper, and Fred with M45E shotgun.

Finally the elevator reached the specific point and they exited to a pathway. The spartans moved carefully along the path. The path was straight for some distance, then it inclined and then straight again. Their visors scanned for any ambushes or traps, so far none. Finally they came near a door and it was locked.

"Let me interface with the door controls" said Cortana and the door control popped up green.

Chief was thinking about how to get the word about that turian's murder to the c-sec. Cortana picked up his thoughts.

"Don't worry John, I alerted the c-sec. They should be there anytime now" said Cortana to which he gave a mental sigh of relief.

After the door opened, they entered the huge cargo processing bay. They saw lots of robotic arms moving big containers from here and there over the rails in the roof. They slowly moved in, aiming their weapons ready. Suddenly a bullet hit Linda at a blinding speed but her energy shields simply took the shot.

"Whoa! where did it come from?" asked Linda

"Someone's got a mark on us. Get to covering positions" said Chief and everyone took cover behind containers.

"Team, I'm reading 40 hostiles in this area. I'll try to access their comm channel to see what they want" said Cortana. Others acknowledged it. The 4 were wondering who might they be. 40 armed rogue personnel in the citadel is not something they expected. They started to doubt how could these people had bypassed citadel security.

"Linda you see anything?" asked Chief. She noticed hostiles on the far end using her sniper scope.

"I happen to see 3 men in sniper" replied Linda.

"Guyz, I tapped into their network, these people are Cerberus agents" said Cortana which made the spartans eyes to widen.

"What?" asked Fred in confusion.

"How the hell did the armed cerberus agents get here? Does Shepard know anything about it?" asked Kelly. She started to doubt Shepard might have given any intel on them and took him for a backstabber.

"I dont think Shepard has anything to do with this. We'll deal with them and try to keep one alive for questioning" said Chief.

"First we need to lure them out and take them by force or it's gonna take a long time" said Cortana.

"Cortana's right. Linda, snipe the targets until everyone shows up" said Chief.

"Right" replied Linda. She started sniping the distant targets. She instantly killed 3 of them. This is when others started show up. 10 soldiers moved forward to have clear covering fire. The spartans did the same.

One of the cerberus soldiers try to shoot them with his assault rifle. Kelly spotted him and immediately started shooting the type 55 rifle. 6 plasma bolts ate his kinetic barrier and pierced his body and melted everything before he could hide. The soldier fell down with vapors from his body.

This is when two more started moving and shooting at the spartans. Chief killed one with his Gauss assault rifle in a matter of seconds. He cried in pain before dying. The other one was shot down by Fred with his shotgun in 2 rounds as he was far from him.

Then 4 more showed up in an order and started shooting, but the spartan's shields easily brushed off the ammo. Kelly and Chief open fired at them out of cover and all 4 four died in quick succession. By the time Fred took Kelly's position. Chief and Kelly took a new cover position. A soldier started shooting at the Fred. Linda immediately shot her sniper at a vertical hoist's hand that was carrying a container right on top of him. The container fell down straight over his head and broke. He died before could react to the falling container.

Then 5 more started shooting at them. The spartans took cover behind containers.

"Chief, you need to listen to this" said Cortana suddenly. She tapped into the cerberus channel and listened to their chatter.

" _Listen! Try disarming the spartans. Do not hurt them or boss'll cut our head_ " came a soldier's voice yelling.

" _These spartans are tearing us apart. Doubt anyone will make it alive to take them to the base_ " came another soldiers's voice yelling back.

" _Stop whining and take them down. That's what we get paid for_ " came another yelling tone.

With that the channel was cut. Chief realized that cerberus was after them. They're gonna need answers when they get this over with.

"Team, these cerberus fighters are here for us. Looks like their leader is interested in us" said Chief.

"Huh, Then let's give them the taste of hell" said Linda.

The five soldiers started moving forward and chief saw the opportunity. He and Fred immediately came out and started firing at the five. Three of them cried in pain to death and the remaining two immediately took cover, chief and Fred likewise. Kelly ran forward and dodged front and threw a incinerator grenade at the two. The grenade exploded throwing a pile of 3000 degC flame over them, burning them to death.

Then 4 more came out of cover and started shooting. Linda took one with her sniper. Kelly took another with her rifle. The remaining two came too close to the spartans. Fred instantly took his hard light dagger and impaled it in the soldier's chest. It's passed easily through the kinetic barrier and impaled in his chest. The other was knocked down with the rifle by chief and then he shot 4 rounds that killed him.

So far, the spartans killed 20 cerberus soldiers easily while their attacks were simply shrugged off by their energy shields.

"Chief, still 20 more" said Cortana.

Suddenly, a group of 10 soldiers in a heavy armor came storming towards their position.

"Contacts! in front" yelled Kelly. Everyone went to cover.

"Looks like they are tougher than the ones we faced before. So be careful" said Cortana.

Linda and Fred switched to assault rifle. They saw the 10 soldiers evenly spread and took cover behind a vertical hoist and containers that are there. The blue team decided to ambush them by storming the soldiers with Gauss bullets because it's gonna take a while to kill them all. To lure them out, they decided to show themselves out.

"Team, out of cover" said Chief and the 4 came out with their rifles ready.

Then the 10 cerberus soldiers came out of cover and started shooting at the spartans thinking they could overwhelm them. But the spartans proved it wrong.

Chief immediately raised his left hand and summoned a force field that made the bullets to ricochet. This caused a valuable distraction for the spartans. Then they stormed the 10 cerberus centurions with their Gauss assault rifles. The centurions were fooled by the spartans to get them out of their cover.

The electromagnetically accelerated bullets hit the centurions at greater speeds, depleting their kinetic barrier and piercing their armor and body like paper. The 10 cerberus soldiers dropped dead and drowned by their own pool of blood. This makes a count of 30.

"Still 10 more left. Does anyone know where they are hiding?" asked Fred.

"Motion trackers show no movement" said Kelly. Everyone were aiming their weapons all around them.

Then suddenly a base ball sized object came floating with a hum. The spartans noticed that and turned to see it. The object stopped and then projected a holo image of a man in an assassin armor with shades that cover his eyes. His face looked Chinese.

"Well, greetings spartans" greeted the assassin. The blue team looked at him in confusion for a moment and then lowered their guard. Chief started to speak.

"Who are you?" asked Chief.

"My name's Kai leng, cerberus operative. Me and my men were sent here to talk to you". After sharing a look among one each other,

"Doesn't look much like talking" said Fred, referring to the 30 bodies.

"I don't enjoy you 4 killing my men. But before, you get into further trouble, you got one chance to come with us peacefully. My boss is eager to meet you" said Kai leng with patience as well as anger which he hid with in him and crossed his arms.

"Tell your Illusive man that we decline his generous offer" said Linda

"So you do know him"

"We've heard a lot about cerberus. Illusive man? We know nothing other than he's their leader" said Kelly. Kai leng smirked at the reply.

"As you can see, cerberus is the humanity's future"

"So we've heard. First, how did you get into the citadel with armed men with out getting spotted?" asked Chief.

"Do you think we're fools to run into this place just like that? We know what we do. Too bad I had to kill that turian to lure you here"

"So it was you who killed him! Clearly it shows cerberus is filled with thugs and brutes that kills other alien people for pleasure in the name greater good" said Fred that annoyed kai leng.

"You know nothing about cerberus! Dont try to play smart! If you come with us, we can end this blood shed" while talking, suddenly 10 ninja like people jumped from the roof out of nowhere and surrounded the spartans.

The ninjas then took their biotic charged katana in their hands ready to attack them. The soldiers looked slim in their armor. It was mainly to gain advantage in flexible, stealth and quick movement. The spartans slightly raised their weapons at them.

"Or...We can have this a hard way. Those soldiers might have not stood a chance against you. But these phantoms will get the job done" finished Leng. The spartans took a moment to talk.

"Where are you?" asked Kelly

"Did you take me for a fool to give you my location? Why don't you ask the...AI? you have?" said Leng which alarmed the others. The spartans shared a look of confusion.

"What th-...!?" said Cortana in Chief's head, equally confused.

"You seem to know a lot about us. Were you spying?" said Linda. The spartans though wary of this conversation, still kept their heads cool.

"That's no longer important" said Leng with a hideous smile.

"Chief, This Kai leng is not here. I think he fled. And these...ninjas...They work so speed. Their swiftness almost match a spartans reflex" said Cortana. There was a brief pause.

The 10 ninjas have their biotic charged katana ready to slice, surrounding them. The ninjas might be fast. But the spartan augmentations is not some ruse as some would see. They are for real fight. The spartans can match the reflex of these ninjas which means, fighting them wont be much of a problem.

"Let's say...We do it the hard way. I would like to know how this plays out" said Chief bringing up the energy sword from his right wrist. Fred, Kelly and Linda holstered their rifles and took their dual energy swords. The magnetically shaped plasma blade shown bright ionizing the air with smell of ozone.

"Nice blades...So be it!" said Kai leng and the hologram turned off. Before the fight started, Cortana asked Chief to keep one alive. The next moment the ninjas charged towards them.

Chief and Fred fought 3 ninjas each. Kelly and Linda were fighting 2 ninjas each. The energy swords can easily slice their katana, but the biotic field distorts the charges but couldn't prevent the plasma heat transferring to the blade. The heat transfer is great to a point that it will melt sooner.

Chief with his right arm energy sword was tackling the 3 ninjas attacks. From the left hand, chief used the force field to repel the attacks. Also the field causes the ninjas to stagger a moment due to its repulsive nature. Chief used this moments to attack them.

The ninjas dodge and perform somersaults in the ground and air to evade the spartans attacks. Chief also managed to block all the 3 sword attack at the same time with his energy sword and even toss them off. The ninjas had speed but lacked strength. But the spartans had both strength and speed.

Fred on the other hand being the most proficient in knife combat techniques easily brushed off the 3 ninja's attacks with speed and precision. With 2 energy swords, it was even more easier for him. The ninjas tried to dodge attack him, but he too was fast to evade those attacks.

Kelly on the other hand was fighting 2 ninjas with her 2 energy swords. Kelly was usually called as 'The Rabbit' by her friends because she's the fastest of the spartan II's. This speed was very useful in evading the ninja's attacks. Her legs were incredibly fast that she easily maneuvered their attacks and also used her strength to overpower the ninjas.

Linda was having fight with the last 2 ninjas. Linda was usually called the 'Lone Wolf' because she never relied much on others help. She's an excellent sniping sharp shooter. She could even precisely take out a banshee by shooting at its slit that can barely allow a bullet to pass through. Even john considers her deadly when it comes to precision attacks.

She was able to see the razor sharped edges of the katanas precisely such that she predicts where exactly it falls on her by seeing the direction of swing. With that kind of ability, she was able to easily evade the ninja's attacks. She could also block their attacks with little effort with her energy swords.

Overall, the spartans had the upper hand in this sword fight. Chief being a promethean had lightning reflex as the ninjas struggled to fight him. The 3 ninja's swords started to heat up terribly that the biotic field failed. Chief then easily sliced their swords to halves. The ninjas staggered for a bit as to what to do next. Chief immediately proceeded to impale a ninja to his/her abdomen killing her due to the heat followed by an arm swing that cut another ninja's head. The last ninja was knocked down unconscious for questioning.

Fred did the same. When their biotics failed, their swords were destroyed and he managed to kill one ninja by impaling deep into chest that it showed up on the other side. Another by decapitating him/her. Then last ninja tried to use the legs to kick, but Fred evaded it and immediately sliced the gut. The 6 ninjas lay dead.

Kelly used her fast legs to evade their attacks and after destroying their katanas, she killed one by piercing the energy sword into the middle of the breast and the other by cutting her head off.

Finally, the precision eyed Linda after destroying their katanas, immediately sliced one ninja's gut and another followed by a back elbow punch to his/her face and impaling the sword to her spine that came out of her abdomen. The last of the ninjas fell down lifeless.

The fight took place for 12 minutes and 20 minutes for killing everyone. When the katana touched the spartans armor, the energy shield managed to brush it off. Only a small portion of shields were drained.

Out of 10, 9 cerberus phantoms lay dead. Everyone shared a look to check if the others are alright. Everyone took a brief sigh and caught their breath for sometime. The fight was a great deal. Everyone holstered their swords back.

"Huh...goddamn ninjas were fast even if we managed to kill them" said Fred

"Guyz, let's check on the one alive. We need to know everything" said Cortana.

The spartans used their helmets to scan the ninjas. They were shocked. These ninja's neural links are extensively replaced with cybernetic implants as if they were programmed to fight like this.

"Jesus! Who would do that to these people. Looks like cerberus forced this into them or they must have volunteered to this in the name of humanity's greater BULLSHIT!" said Fred in anger.

"Fred, please.." said Linda trying to calm him.

"He's right" said Kelly who got a stare from the three. "Look at them! Their mind...simply indoctrinated to fight? I mean, if cerberus claims to help humanity, they shouldn't be doing this" said Kelly feeling slight anger.

Chief was listening to them without responding. Even he felt sick of cerberus with this.

"You know...this debate's not gonna help us anyway, but they are actually right" said Cortana to Chief.

"We have one alive. Let's pour him down some questions" said Chief trying bring their attention. Others nodded at him.

"Chief, those implants? Let me see if I cant access them" said Cortana. Chief was confused.

"What good comes out of that?" asked Chief

"Just put me out. I'll tell you" said Cortana. Chief opened his right palm and Cortana jumped out of his hand and grew to normal human size. Others were wondering why she came out.

The 5 went near a phantom who was struggling to get up. She saw 4 towering figures and blue girl hologram in a scientist dress. The ninja was terrified as if he/she saw demons from hell. The ninja groaned in pain and they identified it as female.

Chief grabbed the ninja by her shoulder and pinned her to the container wall by force. She was struggling to escape but to no avail.

"What does cerberus want's with us?" asked Chief

"I..I..If you th...think i would tell...you out of fear, th..then you are deeply deluded" said the phantom struggling to speak. Chief slowly turned his head right, gave a sigh and turned back again to look at her.

"Listen lady...Next time, try bringing the entire cerberus military to try and take my friends out. But still you are gonna fail, you know why? Coz they've faced powerful enemies in overwhelming numbers and got out of that. Now tell us why cerberus seek us? or atleast give us your exact location, so that we could talk to your Illusive man" said Cortana.

"Gh...go fuck yourself!..." said the phantom. Kelly immediately pulled out a plasma pistol and shot her abdomen. The plasma killed her instantly. Others were looking at her in a mocking fashion.

"What!...She's is annoying" said Kelly. Though she's dead, Cortana's still got tricks she could play.

"Cortana?" called Chief. She looked at Chief and then went near her. Then she touched the phantom's rear head. Cortana's AI matrix immediately found an interface spot in the phantom's implants. She immediately scanned her brain memories though the implants and found an important information. Then she immediately took her hands from the phantom's head.

"I scanned her memories through her implants and I found it" said Cortana with a smirk.

"What did you find?" asked Linda

"The exact location of cerberus" said Cortana which stunned the four.

"Where?" asked Fred eagerly.

"It's called Cronos station, located in the Anadius system in horse head nebula"

"Then's let's get there and finish them" said Fred in a hurry.

"Godspeed Fred!" said Kelly trying get him out of the excitation.

"Team. Shepard has nothing to do with this. Cerberus or not, but he worked hard to put a team together to fight the collectors. He need to keep his team's morale up to win this war. Remember what Chief Mendez said? 'You can't win unless your team wins' " said Chief where Cortana picked up.

"Chief's right. If we do anything about cerberus, this may in-directly affect Shepard's mission"

"So what do you suggest?" asked Fred in frustration.

"We'll sit this one out, for now. Then we'll talk to Shepard once he finishes hs mission" said Chief. Others understood his point and nodded in approvingly.

"Wait, how did cerberus got here without any alarm?" asked Linda. Cortana answered to that as she saw everything in the phantom's memories.

"Actually, someone tipped off the information about our arrival here to their leader"

"But how? How they knew we're gonna come here?" asked Chief

"I don't know. The cerberus soldiers came here with a fake identity to get entry in to the citadel. After that, they came to this zakera ward and scrambled all the sensors and control systems here. Then they tapped into the citadel command controls to check for our arrival. There's no way C-sec knew what happened here until they send someone to check for the sensor mal-functions" explained Cortana.

"Then let's get outta here and inform Anderson about this" said Fred

"Wait, Who could have given the intel, Cortana?" asked Linda in doubt. Before Cortana could answer, Chief replied.

"We told Shepard that we're gonna meet Admiral here before he left our vessel. But i know he would have never given the intel. I suspect the other cerberus agent with him, who was more interested in us" said Chief.

"You mean that Miranda lawson? But she couldn't possibly know that, as we told this only to him and that quarian." said Kelly.

"Guyz, she's cerberus and no one has to teach cerberus how to spy on someone" said Cortana crossing her arms.

"You mean she could've placed any bug on Shepard to listen to what we spoke?" asked Fred.

"Maybe. But what matters is we beat them." said Chief.

"Alright. Let the C-sec take care of this pile of bodies. We'll go to Anderson and notify this" said Linda.

Others nodded in approval. Cortana went back to chief's palm and disappeared. Then everyone left the zakera ward. They used the same elevator to get down to the alley. There they were greeted by C-sec captain Bailey who finished investigating the murder.

"Chief, I never expected you four from this side" said Bailey who saw the spartans coming out the building they entered to reach the zakera ward.

"We ran into a problem. There were 40 mercenaries tried to lure us to the zakera ward to kill us. But we managed it" said Fred.

"Managed!? I take it you killed them?" asked Bailey tensed.

"We had no choice. We acted on our defense" said Chief. Bailey and the c-sec guards were staring at the spartans.

"Who were they?"

"We dont know. But someone's really interested in getting their hands on our technologies. it might be their handy work" said Kelly.

"Well, I wont lie about that, from what I heard about your meeting with the councilors, you refused to share your techs with them" said Bailey with a chuckle.

"Looks like citadel's not a safe place for us" said Linda with a smirk under her helmet.

"Don't worry. We'll take care of that and find who's after you people" said Bailey. The spartans nodded at that.

"If you'll excuse us, we have to meet Admiral Anderson to notify this incident" said Chief.

"Sure. You may go" said Bailey

With that, the spartans went to the embassy building to meet with admiral anderson in the human council hall.

 **Don't forget to review.**

 **A/N: After the blue team meets with anderson, there will a short notes on what the spartans do in the remaining days of base completion in the next chapter and as everyone anticipated, they will finally reunite with their universe's reinforcement. And, Illusive man's really gonna be pissed off after this loss and moves on to a new plan.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect**

 **Chapter 11: One ends, another begin.**

The blue team after a devastating fight with the cerberus assassins, they decided to let only Admiral Anderson to know about this. Telling the councilors will cause unnecessary tension among them and also the peace among the innocent people living here will shatter.

The spartans reached the embassy where they saw armed C-Sec guards standing. The guards warily looked at the spartans. When they tried to enter, the guards stopped there.

"I'm sorry sir! but no one's allowed to enter the embassy halls until the situation is resolved" said a guard still slightly nervous at the sight of 4 spartans.

"I know that and that's why i need to talk to the admiral" said chief.

"Did you listened to what I said!? No one's allowed to enter!" said another guard in a pressing tone.

The blue team were exchanging looks. They were irritated but couldn't blame them as they were doing their duty. But they can't tell them that cerberus got under their nose. But to their luck, Anderson already came out of the hall and met the spartans.

"Chief! Glad to see you." greeted the admiral surprised to see the spartans. He too knew of a murder that took place in the embassy wards. He was terrified as to who could have done that.

"Admiral, we need to talk to you and it's urgent" said kelly. Anderson stared at the spartans for a moment and then asked the guards to let them.

"Officers! They are under my jurisdiction, so let them in" said the Admiral in a commanding tone.

The guards looked at them both for a moment and then decided to let them in.

"Alright. You are cleared to go. Huh...word comes comes from the top brass, what else do we need..." said the guard. The spartans nodded and crossed the yellow holo tape that was blocking the embassy pathway.

Fred, kelly and linda walked towards the Admiral followed by chief at last. This is when he heard a turian guard talking to a human officer.

"When did these freaks got support in our place?" asked the turian officer in a low voice not wanting the spartans to here.

"Been here 3 days and they roam our galaxy like it's theirs. I hope the politicians keep them in check" said the human officer.

Chief having acute hearing heard the conversation despite being low voice. He stopped and turned his head to left as if listening to them. He didn't react to that, turned back and walked away.

He followed his friends and the Admiral to the human embassy hall. There, Ambassador Udina was talking to captain bailey over the terminal in raised tone.

"Listen to me captain! Dispose those bodies immediately and I wanna know who the heck were those people!"

"Yes sir! I'm on it" replied Bailey and the terminal was closed. Udina then turned to see the admiral and the 4 spartans. Just then he was notified of a fight between the spartans and a mysterious group in the zakera ward by C-Sec Bailey. He was looking angry at the spartans almost ignoring the admiral's presence though part of his anger is for different reasons.

"Master chief! Just now captain bailey informed me that you 4 ran into a fight with some people in the ward. What the hell are you people thinking? Who gave you outsiders the liberty pick a fight with our people!?" yelled Udina. Anderson looked confused with what Udina said.

"Wha-? What's this about chief?" asked Anderson in doubt.

The spartans took their time to reply. But felt wary to talk in Udina's presence as he's a citadel councilor. But they didn't have much choice in this matter.

"Sir, those mysterious people are cerberus soldiers" said the chief. The two had their eyes widen in shock.

"WHAT!?" yelled Udina and everyone turned to look at him.

"How the heck!?" said Anderson looking down in confusion and then looked up at chief.

"Chief, you need to brief us on that" said Anderson. Then cortana spoke up.

"Chief, get me out". Chief opened his right palm and cortana projected out and jumped off from his hand to grow to normal human size. Anderson and Udina saw her coming out.

"A Sniper took a shot at a turian who was standing near the embassy's information ward. We just found that it came from a greater vantage point near the zakera ward in the opposite side" said cortana followed by linda.

"After our investigation, we learned that it was a little cerberus attempt on us" said linda.

Udina and Anderson were already shocked about the news of cerberus infiltration. But after hearing that cerberus came for the spartans, they were terrified. Citadel is the most heavily fortified space station in the galaxy. There's no way someone could easily bypass the security and enter. But somehow the Cerberus did that easily which they felt though frowned with the information, he doubted the spartans whether if it's true or not.

"Chief, Is it true or...Are you four trying to pull any con?" asked Udina moving towards the spartans slowly keeping his face grim.

Chief respected udina as a politician in dealing with politics which's always tiresome. But he sensed some hate in the manner of speaking.

"It's cerberus and the one who led 40 assassin's to take us out was...some name...yeah! Kai leng" said kelly which toppled Anderson's head like someone threw a huge rock over his head.

"LENG! I never thought that vicious bastard would be behind this" said anderson gritting his teeth in anger and frustration. Udina was now convinced after hearing that name.

Of course, Anderson and kai leng have a bitter history in the past.

"Who is he?" asked chief

"Kai leng was once an alliance N7 soldier. He was aggressive enough that he killed an innocent krogan in the citadel. He likes rubbing people in a wrong way, stealing medals from enemy officers, all kinds of shits a soldier should never do. The command discharged him due to bad conduct and was imprisoned for 20 years"

"How did he end up with cerberus?" asked cortana

"Illusive man always got a knack for bad guyz. Leng's cold blooded and stone hearted nature was much of an attraction and recruited him after he was released from the prison. From that day forth, he became the cerberus's bitch!" explained anderson. The spartans shared a look and gave themselves a shrug.

"Don't get me wrong Admiral. But you sound like you got something personal with him" said fred crossing his arms. Anderson sighed at that.

"That was a long time ago. Anderson, I'm going to meet the other councilors regarding this matter. I'll see you afterwards" said udina and left the embassy hall to meet with the other councilors. The spartans turned to see him leave and then turned back to look at anderson. Anderson looked down in frustration and sighed.

"Huh!... He had stuck his nose into everything that's none of his business in this galaxy. He had got in my way a lot of times more than i could remember" said Anderson suddenly drawn upon by his pasts.

"What kind of person was he?" asked cortana

"He is ruthless and never hesitated to take life. He uses people in his vicinity to achieve his goal and end up killing them to protect his hide"

"What can you tell me about cerberus in general?" asked fred.

"Apart from the cerberus's own view about themselves, They truly are a human terrorist organization who achieves their goal by any means even if they end up killing lot of innocents. They claim to uplift humanity but that's all bullshit! I would say that they neither care about the galaxy's welfare nor humanity's. Cerberus seeks its own dominance in this galaxy. Even there are evidences cerberus killing our own people. Usually illusive man uses innocents as baits to take their enemy out" said anderson in disgust.

The spartans felt sick of the cerberus and their way of work.

"What kind of jackasses are they?" asked kelly in anger.

'That's only half of it. In one of my missions, I even learned that cerberus had experimented on one of their agents with salvaged reaper technology and indoctrinated him by placing reaper implants to make him a lot powerful and keep him under their control" said anderson frowned. He was infact talking about an agent named Paul grayson.

This even more furiated the spartans after learning cerberus use the technology of this galaxy's very enemy they were sent to destroy.

"What!? And how could the illusive man even live with that? Cerberus is worse than the reapers" said fred in fury.

"Why weren't they caught for a long time?" asked chief

"Illusive man is best at covering tracks. Their trails go cold before someone could find any lead. Even if they did, running your butt against them is suicide" said Anderson.

He actually didn't know that the spartans already have the cerberus head quarter's location when cortana scanned a dead agent's memory. But decided to slide it for then.

"Anyway, It's good to see you 5 alright, but it ain't over. They will attempt as much as needed until they get their hands on you" said Anderson with a smile.

"They can try and their heads will roll" said fred. Anderson raised his eyebrow at that.

"You know we actually met commander-..." Linda began the conversation and chief started walking away from them to look at the open view of the civilian alley from the compound wall. He leaned over it by placing his both hands. Others were explaining everything to Anderson regarding their journey so far.

"Really! It's good to he-..." replying anderson in surprise. Chief turned his head towards them for a moment and turned his head straight again. He never got time admire environmental beauty in his life as he always had to have a hand in any war. But now he was having his time now...Until...

 _ **"Why are you taking much time!...The mantle waits for no one..."**_

Chief once again felt a cold and void sensation and a deep voice that he felt very familiar just like before. Chief immediately took himself back from the wall, did a fighting stance looking up, down and sideways in tense. Still he couldn't figure out what it is, where's the voice coming. He once again heard kelly's voice in the distance

"Shepard's got a good team an-...". He looked at her and then again turned back.

 _ **"You will stand as a monument to all sins!"**_ the voice finished with an even more devilish tone.

Chief's breathing was quite high. He was tensed and also irritated. He had never gone through anything like this. As the voice stopped, he became calm and decided to talk to his friends about this afterwards. Others didn't notice this so he walked towards them as if nothing happened.

"Cheif, admiring the view?" asked Anderson cheerfully

"Yes. This place's beautiful" said chief.

"Chief, thank you for assisting shepard at haestorm. Also good to hear that his former teammate Tali' Zorah is back. I'm happy that shepard has someone to watch his back. Even though you are new to this place, You risked yourself in helping us and i don't know what we owe you in return" said Anderson.

"You owe us nothing Admiral. We're just doing our duty as soldiers" replied fred. Anderson gave a simple nod to that.

"Though I would say that this cerberus is gonna be a biggest thorn in your side. It's better to keep them at watch" said cortana. Anderson frowned a bit, but then he changed the subject. Kelly asked him a question.

"So? How's everyone taking our presence, especially the councilors?"

"Frankly, Everyone's disappointed, councilors...Even angry at you people" said anderson

"Typical!" replied Linda

"The powers and technology you carry would easily upset the balance of any race you choose to side with"

"That's why we didn't take sides" replied Chief. Anderson nodded as he truly understood the spartans decision and considered a noble one. This is when the holograms of the councilors popped up in the nearby terminal.

"My my...Check it out...It's the spartans" started councilor sparatus in mocking tone. He was starting at cortana.

Everyone turned towards them and no one's pleased to see them.

"Spartans, We heard that you ran into a fight with some unknown party in the zakera ward" said Tevos. Others were confused.

"Looks like Udina didn't utter a word about cerberus. That's good" thought chief. He felt Udina did a right job to save the headache for both himself and Anderson.

"Actually they were..." spoke chief before interrupted by Valern.

"Mercenaries...We got the report. It's strange and annoying that they snuck under our nose in large numbers" said valern.

"Whoever they are...Certainly they were interested in abducting us, from what we heard from one of them" said cortana.

"That's exactly why we asked you to join the council. Or you will have to face this trouble everyday and council can't help 5 unknown individuals regarding this matter while we still got a lot in our heads" said sparatus in slight yelling tone.

"It always comes to this!" thought chief in anger.

"We aren't some rookies to cry and hide from these assholes. We've faced insurmountable circumstances a lot more than we could imagine. Perhaps you should worry about tightening the security a lot after this" said fred with a smirk crossing his arms.

The councilors were disgusted at his reply and at the same time felt they actually meant those words. They shared brief look among them and then spoke.

"Huh...We know our role and you outsiders don't have to remind us" said sparatus and the three cut the terminal.

"Hooh...That went well" said kelly.

"Sir, I'm sending you the coordinates of our base to your omnitool. In future, it may deem necessary for us to talk there. Give the location to Admiral Hackett too" said cortana.

"Thank you. But I dont know what we might have to talk.." said Anderson looking at his omnitool.

"Many. And please don't share it with anyone apart from Admiral Hackett" said chief

"Don't worry. You have my word" said Anderson in a assuring voice.

"Then i think it's time we took off. We should be on our way" said cortana and then vanished into chief's right palm.

"Farewell spartans!" Anderson bid them. The spartans nodded and left the embassy.

...

They reached the docks where they teleported. The 4 stood again side by side and cortana activated the teleportation grid that transported them to the dawn's civilian deck. From there they walked their way to the bridge. Then chief placed the AI chip in the pedestal and cortana popped up. Others were about to take their seats. Then chief decided to speak about what happened to him.

"I need to tell you something" Chief called in a dull tone. They turned to see him.

"What is it chief?" asked Linda. He took a breath and then started talking.

"It happened again" said chief bluntly. Others were confused.

"What happened?" asked Cortana.

"The strange voice"

"What!? When!?" asked Fred in tense.

"In the human embassy while I was leaning to the compound wall looking at the open view"

Others looked among themselves in confusion. This is the first time they had seen something like this. They couldn't figure anything out.

"This is gonna be a big problem" said Kelly in a plain tone.

"Wait...Chief, Last time I checked it out, I found no anomalies in your brain. It looks like something has caused you to have hallucinations" said cortana

"May be, but hallucinations don't happen just like that and it can't be coincidental. The voice was very much familiar like i have heard it similar in...Requiem"

"Requiem!?" asked fred in confusion. John nodded in response.

Cortana was analyzing the possible solutions to this dilemma. But couldn't find one as even she couldn't predict what could it be, but that's for a good reason.

"Well there's only one possible explanation. Something's been triggered in your sub-conscious mind. Because even a smart AI like me cannot enter a person sub-conscious memory layers through their CNI. Maybe those voices must have arised from there for only you to hear those" explained cortana, her arms crossed. Others couldn't help but simply listened to that.

"Well it's quite relieving we atleast got an answer, but why is it happening!? This is not the first time. What's really causing those voices in his head?" asked Kelly. Chief stared at everyone in confusion. He couldn't figure it out.

"From the day when I became a promethean, I always felt strange. I saw things...differently at times that I normally dont" chief said which made Cortana widen her eyes.

"Maybe you shouldn't have undergone that mutation. Looks like it had simply caused a new trouble" said linda.

"It's no longer a factor Linda. But i hope you all heard what radiance said on iridescent regarding my genetics. I was specifically engineered to become the promethean while no human can. Brevet mutations works only on forerunner genes. But i being a human were able to become one. I wanna know, why?"

"May be it's-..."

"Genetic memories" Cortana interrupted Fred. Chief and the others instantly looked at Cortana to get an explanation. she remained silent for a moment and then started talking.

"While I was getting cured of rampancy at iridescent, Radiance gave me full access to forerunner archives. There i came across the concept of genetic memories what the life workers call it as 'Geas'. They are long term genetic memories of an individual placed on another individual's DNA. These memories take their form in the sub-conscious mind subtly influencing their activities. When the geas are fully unlocked, the individual could even lose control of their own body and directly hear its voices like what you had John" explained Cortana.

"How far these geas are common among the forerunners?" asked Kelly

"Like our breakfast. Usually, a well experienced and age forerunner's memories and personality will be imprinted on the younger amateurs. This is done usually to serve the young ones as a guide to lead their lives" said Cortana

The blue team was absolutely stunned with the information cortana gave. The concept of genetic memories had helped the forerunners a lot of times. Cortana also mentioned that only highly skilled life workers like the librarian can create the geas.

"You mean to say that chief has been imprinted?" asked fred.

"I dont wanna jump into conclusions fred, but there's no logical explanation to this. If chief had the ability to become a promethean, then he must carry the respective geas in his DNA. Whatever the imprints, it must have awaken in him" said Cortana which not only shocked the others but chief himself.

"It looks like we hadn't been told everything about Chief in iridescent. I think only you can find the answers to your problem, over time" said Kelly. Chief looked down frowned but he knew Kelly was right. Only he can find solution to his problem.

"You said memories will be placed in one's DNA. Whose memories do you think my genes would be carrying?" asked chief

"It could be anyone. Like Kelly said, only you can find the answers. If my understanding of the geas are right, in time you will start seeing visions of the imprints and maybe there lies the solution you seek" said Cortana.

Cortana started to wonder about John's ancestry. She was trying to figure out why his genetics carry forerunner markers. She was wondering if there is any specific significance to that. But decided to let that slide for then.

"Well, whatever it is, if you need help, we'll always be there" said Fred. Chief nodded and thanked them.

"So, where do we go now?" asked Chief. He took the captain's seat, others took their respective terminals in the bridge.

"At present, there's no bigger activity in the galaxy" said Cortana

"Cortana, have you managed to find a way to monitor the whole galaxy from our base?" asked Kelly

"I already made the arrangements. A long range VHF tower will be installed to connect the commbouy present near a mass relay in the nearby system. Through that, we'll able to connect to every relay commbouys in the galaxy thus having our eyes and ears everywhere"

They were relieved after hearing that.

"Did you had any luck to find another portal to get to our place?" asked chief.

"I'll be working on it once the base is finished. Only there i can do that. Meanwhile, Shepard's busy with the collectors. Once he's done with that, we have to take care of the reapers" said cortana.

"Your right. Since we dont have much to do, we'll better go to our base and await its completion" said chief. Others agreed to that.

"Cortana, engage the drives" said chief. She gave a nod and the dawn moved away from the citadel and jumped into slipspace.

"Cortana, about cerberus..." asked linda

"Dont worry, i have the exact location of their base. But we take care of them later." said cortana. She simply nodded.

 **Cerberus base...**

The illusive man was in his usual dark room. He just then finished watching the footage of the citadel fight. On one end, he was impressed with the spartans fighting prowess, but on the other end, he's infuriated at the loss of 40 good soldiers.

He realized that kicking the front door and stabbing at the back is not gonna work against these spartans. So he decided to sneak under their nose and at the same time use brute force to de-stabilize them

"Sir, sorry about the loss. We've underestimated them" said kai leng in a sad tone. Although he didn't like the fact, he kept his head cool.

"It's alright leng. They are expendable. While they were fighting in the mean time, i've made better plans, but we've to wait for that"

"Sir, why should we wait? Why dont w send fleet after fleet to ambush them?" asked leng in a raised tone.

"That only helps them making a greater kill count" he started walking slowly with a glass of wine..."I've seen what their ship's capable off. A weapon that can burn down a whole planet. At this point, conventional warfare means suicide and that is why we're gonna have to wait for the right time to execute my plans that would even shake them to the core" explained the Illusive man.

Leng thought for a moment and felt that he was right. He then left the room. Illusive man took a sip of wine staring simply at nothing.

...

 **Meanwhile Shepard and his crew...**

Commander Shepard had been on a personal mission as a favor to admiral hackett. He was to rescue an alliance scientist Dr. Amanda kenson from the batarian space who was captured while analyzing a reaper artifact.

After infiltrating the facility, he rescued the scientist and escaped the planet with the doctor to another alliance facility in an asteroid near the alpha relay.

Kenson told that they had uncovered a reaper artifact and also warned him of an imminent reaper invasion in the next two days based the signal pattern from the artifact. Shepard expressed interest to investigate it. She also told that the reapers plan to use the nearby alpha relay to begin the invasion. When shepard asked about the purpose of the asteroid, she mentioned that this asteroid will be used as a weapon of last reort to destroy the alpha relay to prevent the reaper invasion which was the only solution.

He wished that it doesn't happen as it will cost the life of 300,000 batarians on the planet aratoht.

He entered the asteroid facility and saw the artifact with his own eyes which stunned him. But the artifact burned shepard's mind with visions of reaper invasion only to find that the reaper signal had indoctrinated everyone in the asteroid. He went down unconscious for the next two days and only woke up an hour before the reaper invasion.

Meanwhile aboard the normandy, the crew started to worry about shepard.

"It's been 2 days man!..and what the hell is shepard doin there on that rock?" asked joker tensed.

"Mr. Moreau, We have a problem" said EDI

"Oh yeah? what's that?"

"The thrusters on the asteroid has been activated. It is accelerating and the trajectories show that it's heading towards the relay"

"WHAT!?..We gotta get shepard outta there" said joker and brought the normandy towards the asteroid.

In the meantime, shepard killed dr. kenson who was indoctrinated ad tried to stop the asteroid. He managed to bring the core online and asteroid paced up. Then he found a way outside of the facility. Only 20 minutes was left. He ran towards the comm tower blasting his way through and tried contacting the normandy.

"Joker...you here me?...bring the normandy here!" yelled shepard.

"Aye aye commander" replied joker.

Then suddenly the hologram of the collector general projected in front of him.

" _ **Shepard!...You have become an annoyance. You may destroy this relay, but remember that you are only delaying the inevitable"**_ in a deep growling voice.

"Then listen to me carefully. Take your time and I'll be waiting for you. I dont care even if we lose half of the galaxy or even more, we'll never sleep and we'll never stop until every one of you is dead" replied shepard in a challenging tone.

 _ **"Being naive only makes you a fool. You will see to that. Prepare for the arrival"**_ said the harbinger possessed general and the display went off.

Normandy touched down and shepard immediately jumped into it and asked joker to get the hell outta that place. Normandy escaped through the really and shepard watched the asteroid crashing into the alpha really and causing a supernova that wipes the entire star system. Shepard see the destruction in the CIC display and get to medical bay only to find Admiral hackett.

Hackett came to personally debrief the commander. Hackett warned him that even if commander did the right thing, most would not see it that way and also asked him to be prepared to face the music on earth when the time comes. Shepard said that if needed he would turn himself to the alliance which made hackett to smile seeing that shepard hadn't forgot his place.

By then shepard's got only 2 more mission. Tali's trial and reaper IFF.

...

The spartans in the meantime reached their planet to see through the base's work. Still 18 days were left. The spartans and cortana decided to spend time in the nearby relay systems to use the commbouy and listen to distress calls to see if anyone needs help. Unfortunately they have nothing to do until the base's complete.

Luckily, they intercepted numerous distress calls like terrorist attack, pirates attack, rescue mission etc which weren't a big deal. So they only used two SAHARA prowlers to take part in those missions.

Those missions includes rescuing alliance captives, assisting turian patrol in clearing out pirates, assisting asari commandos in the ground, helping salarian science teams in exploration. They all thanked the spartans for their assistance though they couldn't earn money with that. Again, the UNSC doesn't exist here so they didn't care about that. Apart form doing missions. They spend their time sleeping, eating, exercise and live fire training and CQC training in the dawn. This continues for 18 days and they had almost done around 49 missions in total.

 **After 18 days...**

After 18 days, They landed again in the relay system located next to their base system as they decided to visit their base for it should be completed by then.

"Cortana, time to visit the base. You guyz ready?" asked chief

"Always" said kelly. "I was born ready" said fred. "Hell yeah" said linda. Chief then asks cortana to take them to the planet. The ancient human warship accelerated out of the system and in few minutes reached the planet.

"Behold our new base of operations." said cortana. Even from the space, a large tower was almost visible from the dawn.

"That tower is gonna be the anchor for our ship. Once in position, a ship wide constraint field will be generated to anchor the vessel in the air. Then we can drop to the ground by teleportation or pelicans" explained cortana.

The dawn descended into the atmosphere slowly and got anchored in the tower by the constraint field. Then the spartans used the pelican to leave the dawn and reach the ground.

Everyone saw the base from the sky and It was a pleasant and stunning view. The region covered was 120 miles.

"Cortana? Isn't the base too big for us?" asked fred

"When our reinforcements arrive, it will be just enough"

The base from the sky looked like 2 cliffs seperated by a water fall. The right cliff was for drop ships, and prowlers to land and also construction and maintenance facilities are present in that side for refit and repair. This cliff is protected by forerunner heavy sentries that use high power sentinel beam and forerunner missiles. It also had a long range VHF tower.

The constructors, retrievers, builders and assemblers have terraformed the 120 mile square perimeter. The two corners of the right cliffs are protected by two Z-8060 high impact particle canons.

The left cliff is the main base for all the military personnels. There, it has highly sophisticated military camps with all rations and supplies they need until they their time in this universe. Also possess an underground base for mission planning and briefing. It can be reached through gravity lifts deep with in the cliff. Like wise, this cliff too is protected by two more Z-8060 particle canons in the 2 corners. Also there is mini forerunner manufacturing facility for R&D.

On both the cliffs, there are road like surfaces all along the 120 mile length for ground vehicles like scorpions, warthogs etc..

The 2 cliffs are seperated by a distance of 550 metres and connected by 8 anti-gravity gondolas along the 120 mile span. In the gap is the river flow and water fall. The view was a sight for sore eyes.

The spartans touched the ground and came out of the pelican. Everyone saw the vast view of the base. They also brought a huragok with them from the dawn. On cortana's request, chief showed some signs to the huragok to carry on its work in the base. It slowly went near a terminal to work.

"Anywhere we go, we rule the place...Ha!" said fred with a smirk. Everyone nodded in approval. The pelican then automatically entered the ground hanger to preserve the drop ships and prowlers.

They all walked toward their left side to reach the gondolas. On their way, they saw the constructors, assemblers and builders move here and there. Also they saw forerunner sentries armed ready.

Finally they reached the gondola station. from there, chief activated a holo console that moved the gondola to the other side. Then on the other cliff, the spartans moved in to the military camp. They were really impressed as it very much reminded them of the boot camp they trained as children on reach.

"Reminds me old days" said kelly. "You can say that again. This is where our life started" said linda.

"Back to the place we belonged to" said chief. They all walked into the camp. The oly difference is it's a lot more sophisticated. They had access to everything in the vicinity.

"Thank you very much cortana" said fred

"You guyz dont have to thank me. I'm glad i could help" replied cortana. She pointed the blue team to their quarters. It was a big hall both having a civilian and military aesthetics.

"Time we kept this armor out for a while" said kelly.

"Your right and have some shut eyes after we eat something" said linda. Chief and fred nodded at that. In their quarters, each had their own armor removal/fitting robotic drones. Fred, Kelly and Linda used their drones to remove their armor. Chief's armor being a **MJOLNIR VI/Forerunner 12** combat skin, The armor parts simply unlocked itself and slightly came out of chief's body. the drones simply took the parts and locked them safely. Now everyone were simply with their black inner bodysuit which itself had a military attire so they needn't have to change clothes.

In earth's time, its already 7:00 PM there and was near dark. The lights were turned ON in the whole base which had an effect like christmas tree. Chief put cortana's chip in a terminal and then she can easily connect with the whole base. The spartans decided to have their dinner and sleep for they have to tour the whole base thoroughly and also the ground vehicles and drop ships must be loaded here.

...

 **Somewhere outside the Milky way...**

In the dark space outside the milkyway, multiple slipspace ruptures occurred and out came 8 human made vessels and 6 alien made vessels. It was none other than the UNSC and the seperatists fleet. UNSC Infinity, 3 Autumn cruisers, 5 strident frigates and 2 CAS assault carriers and 4 CCS battle cruisers.

"Roland, I need status report!" commanded Captain Lasky.

"Sir, Engines and energy cores are reading good. No casualties reported. All ships in the fleet are reporting good. Our travel time was 12 minutes" replied the Infinity's AI.

"Comm! open a ship wide channel"

"Aye aye sir" said the comm officer and opened a ship wide channel.

"Attention all personnel! We have reached our destination. Await further orders until the situation is briefed" said lasky in the comm.

Doctor Halsey came to the bridge to see what happened after listening to the lasky's announcement.

Meanwhile in the shadow of intent, Arbiter opened up the holo display for status report

"R'tas? how are we?" asked the Arbiter

"All of our ships are reporting good including our UNSC allies"

"Arbiter, we are receiving transmission form Infinity" said another sanghelli officer

"Put them up" said the Arbiter. Then the holo display projected captain Lasky.

"Captain Lasky, It's good to hear from you" said the Arbiter

"Like wise Arbiter. Our crew's fine. How's yours?"

"We are good. What do we know about the current situation?"

"We are analyzing it and we only know as much as you do at this point. We'll contact you soon enough"

"Thank you captain" said the Arbiter and the terminal was cut.

At the Infinity's bridge, doctor halsey stood nearby captain.

"Captain, so what's the situation?" asked Halsey

"Well, we rode for 12 minutes in the portal. Everyone's fine and i hope you too doctor" said lasky

"I'm fine, so what's this new gala-...?" asked halsey before being cut off by roland.

"Sir! You need to see this" urged the AI with a holo display of the galaxy. Everyone took a brief look at the display. But then were shocked after realizing what they truly saw.

"Is that...that can't be right?" started Halsey. Lasky and halsey shared a confusing look and then he replied

"Milky way"

"Roland run scanner diagnostics and double check the data"

"I triple checked sir!...It is Milky way" replied Roland wit ha confusion in it's voice. Lasky frowned at this. They thought they had travelled to a new galaxy but seems like they failed.

"Cortana said it's a new galaxy. How come it's our own?" asked Lasky.

Halsey was running calculations on her mind regarding the situation. She stumbled upon something that even she felt crazy.

" _could it be...?"_ she started thinking.

 **to be continued...**

 **Don't forget to review**

 **A/N: In this story, Mass effect 3 story line will take place 14 months after mass effect 2 for my convenience. Also in the forth coming chapters, chief will explore his ancestry and inheritance. Also during the reaper war, the real culprit of this entire story line will be revealed as to who lured the Halo characters in to this universe.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: This is to the author 'Fer82'- This is the 2nd biggest review i read next to sparta47's. First of all, the 'Dawn' is made in forerunner facility, but not a forerunner ship. It's a replicated design of ancient human capital ship (courtesy: Halo 4 terminals). MAC being a kinetic bombardment weapon is no pushover and it's the only UNSC ship board weapon. As for the other things you noted, I'll do my best.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect.**

 **Chapter 12: Know your role**

The spartans woke up the next morning at Earth STD Time: 05:30 in their base. The sunlight touched the horizon. They carried out their usual routine work like jogging, exercise, weight training etc.,. As for then, the spartans were the only occupants so the place remained calm and cool. The base was constructed for both military operations and required civilian comfort. Though the spartans are super soldiers, they are still humans and they need to stay fit and take care of their health just like ordinary soldiers do.

After their routine, they had a quick shower and breakfast. Cortana made sure that the base also contains normal civilian food supplies instead of standard UNSC rations. The spartans had oatmeal, toasted sandwiches, eggs and a special fruit native to that planet. According to cortana, that fruit is simple fleshy under class 'POME'. It has all the essential nutrients and also just one fruit is enough to gain more energy for a day. Also she warned that consumption of more than one per day would cause excessive secretion of pancreatic juice and erosion of intestinal wall.

After their routine, they put on their MJOLNIR armor using the armor refit/removal drone and decide to take a tour to explore the base.

The first place to visit was the under-ground command centre where the UNSC high ranking members brief mission parameters and conduct mission coordination.

These underground command centres proved vital during the human-covenant war. During the last battle of earth, a similar underground command code named 'CROW's NEST' was used by commander Miranda Keyes where sgt. Johnson, master chief, arbiter were briefed on their last stand by lord hood before forced to bomb the bunker when enemy forces infiltrated the bunker. There were also other bases such as SWORD and CASTLE on reach which was almost compromised by the covenant. One good thing out of these underground bases were that it's nearly impossible for the enemy to breach because fortifiations were better there than on the surface.

For their mission against the reapers and other enemies in the galaxy, their base should be strong enough to withstand enemy onslaught if the base's cover unwittingly gets blown up. The spartans were satisfied with the facilities in the command post coz they must be ready for everything.

The next place the spartans visited was the personnel quarters for both civilian and military. Cortana made sure that everyone who'll be arriving there felt comfortable in the base. This is to relieve the people from stress so that they keep going with the mission with greater effectiveness.

Next they got to see the fortifications. The whole base is guarded by 4 primary Z-8060 particle canons. Also other anti-aircraft defenses like 8 4-series MAC guns-4 on each cliff, Anti-craft missile batteries, super sentinels for engaging ground forces. Gondolas serve as transport between the two cliffs.

The next place is the R&D facility to research and develop new weapons and vehicles to combat the enemy.

Over all, the base though not 100% perfect still a better one. Another feature is that enemies cannot land directly on the base instead they have to infiltrate from outside, which will be so hard.

"This place is everything one could imagine. Shame! We didn't have anything like this in the days of the war" said Fred astonished with the base.

He was right in that sense as covenants were easily able to infiltrate UNSC planets that costed them billions of lives. If they had greater defenses, they would have had a hard time even touching the ground.

"Even if we did, we can be sure that there's always some group in the galaxy that wanted us as good as dead. Hell if we know if we are still allies with sanghelli?" replied Linda.

After the war, elites became allies yet there's still animosity between them and some faction of the covenant supremists group called the 'storm covenants'. They are led by an elite leader called **Jul' Mdama**.

"Hm! Always expecting the worst Linda?" asked Cortana from chief's speakers with a smirk.

"She's right. 32 years ago we never thought we would face such a crisis. 32 years after, we realize how fragile is our place in the galaxy " replied Kelly. Fred nodded in approval.

Chief was listening to their conversation. This reminded him of the early days of war. How they were conscripted by ONI to become something more than just soldier, a living weapon, How they fought against a superior enemy effectively though suffering significant losses, then their battle with flood.

There was one thing that even john accepted. Humanity's days of being in the sidelines were over. It was time they took greater responsibilities in their hands. He firmly believed that humanity must become more powerful if it's forced to fight another brutal war like it did before. Being a soldier, he contrarily believed that violence was never a solution, but should never hesitate to take life if the enemy willingly asked for it.

"Chief, What's your take on this?" asked Fred. Chief took some time to reply going down the memory lane.

"Our war with the covenant, flood, even the Didact proved that we humans are least significant. Covenants claimed 23 billion human lives, a 100,000 years ago Didact, alone managed to wipe the entire human race, flood managed to wipe the whole galaxy clean of all sentient beings and humanity's fate was always to take up the heavy beating. But one thing has never changed, we might have suffered many losses, but that never drove our spirit to fight. If not for the flood, humanity would have dominated the whole galaxy even a 100 millennia ago" said Chief

"Wow! We never took you for a philosopher" said Linda in a surprising tone.

That's true. Chief never talked much. He very much lived like a machine, simply taking orders and executing them, mission after mission. He rarely showed emotions like while losing cortana or his fellow spartans during the war. But everything he spoke was out of pure wisdom. 30 years of war, fighting different kinds of enemies gave him lot of experience.

"Whatever guyz! He's right. Anyhow, radical changes are needed in both our political and military structure to see through that" replied Cortana

"And all we have to do is keep waiting" said Kelly. Others simply nodded. This is when chief changed the subject.

"So cortana, how long will it take for our reinforcements to arrive? Do you think they would even come?" asked Chief.

Before entering the portal, radiance managed to send the Cortana's package to the UNSC to brief the situation. But they had their fingers crossed. On one hand, they had their hopes with lord hood choosing to believe and help them. On the other hand, Cortana's message could be simply downplayed by ONI as a ridicule.

"I'm counting on lord hood, but still no idea. It's been a month and not even a trace of their arrival"

"Or...They might have arrived already and must be stuck elsewhere" finished Fred.

"I doubt it very much. Even if they did, we must have easily picked up their signal" said Kelly.

"To fight the reapers, the whole galaxy needs to stand united. If they are capable of wiping out the whole galaxy, then we alone can do nothing" said Linda. Chief was thinking about something else in the mean while. He felt really odd about their situation. Actually he always felt odd since getting into this new universe.

"Huh, This doesn't make any sense" said chief which caught everyone's attention. They were staring at him.

"What do you mean?" Cortana asked. Chief then took few steps and then started talking.

"When we entered the portal and came out of it, we entered the same milky way galaxy but nothing like ours"

"Yeah thanks! But tell us something we dont know" said Cortana cutting chief off.

"I haven't finished yet" replied chief, agitated.

"Sorry caveman!" apologized cortana in a chuckling voice. After a moment of pause, he continued.

"Then we realized that we had arrived in an alternate universe where history is totally different with few exceptions. At first i was skeptical, but remember what _deja_ taught us? Slipspace itself is a seperate universe with alternate physical laws, but that's not my point. Why would someone build a portal to another universe and most of all, why did the forerunners decided to meddle with the incidents happening here while they were already full on war? Most of all, why did we choose to come here while we still could have refused? No offense, but this is not even our universe, but still we came here" finished chief.

There was an absolute silence for everyone's been giving deep thought to his doubts. They started to feel the same. Even though the spartans managed to get a base, still the feeling of residing in another universe was always bizarre to them.

"For one month, we've been asking questions but no answer so far" said kelly. This is when cortana decided to speak.

"Alright, I can see that patience is really not the best suit to you four...But...Since you brought this up, I need to share something with you" said Cortana cryptically.

"What is it?" asked Fred.

"Another bed time story Cortana?" asked chief with a jest.

"No, unless it puts you to sleep. Now listen!" replied Cortana

"Right, what is it you want to tell us?" asked Linda.

"Actually, I managed to gather some historical information from iridescent regarding the timeline before forerunners and humanity, that is, everything before 15 million years" stated Cortana. Others were puzzled over this.

"What's that about?" asked Chief

"You all know about the race called precursors, right?" asked Cortana

"Yeah. You said that they were ones who created the forerunners only to meet the end by their very hands for favoring us" replied fred plain and simple.

"Simply put? yes, that's right. But did you know that their very existence even predates the universe?" asked cortana plain and simple. This was shocking enough for even the spartans to have a feeling of jaw drop and eye pop.

"Predates the universe!? You mean to saaayyy-..." Fred dragged his words

"Exactly 15 billion years before" finished Cortana.

"How's that even possible?" asked Kelly in absolute shock.

"If you take on the fact of big bang theory, then they should be dead during that event. Then how could they possibly create forerunners which is very recent compared to that?" asked Linda straight away what Kelly was trying to ask.

Others nodded in approval for that question. There was a pause and Cortana asked chief to get her out. Chief did so and Cortana jumped out of his palm and grew to a human size. Then she started speaking.

"*SIGH*...Before the birth of our universe, there were two races. One was the precursors and the other, I dont know"

"Why you dont know?" asked Chief

"Because there are no records of them, only bits"

"Both the races were technologically advanced and equal in power. But in terms of biological evolution, precursors superceeded them to the highest point called 'The Transentience'"

"Tra..trans..sentience?" staggered Linda in confusion.

"Its a 'God' like state. They can create new life forms and even manipulate their evolution as they wished. For this they use a concept called 'Neural physics' "

"Huh!...I'm gonna get drunk..."chuckled Fred like an ordinary human. Others were staring at him. True, this is a lot even for them. Then Cortana continued.

"So what do you know about them?" asked Chief getting to the point.

"Only that the two fought a bloody war that ended with the other unknown race's complete extinction"

"What happened then?" asked Kelly

"Lemme guess...After that, A big pork under fire, mug of vodka and butting their heads?" said Cortana sarcastically with a smile. Fred, Kelly and Linda were folding their hands and laughing.

"Human sarcasm! Looks like you inherited that too from Dr. Halsey, but can you give the real answer this time" said chief in a chuckled voice.

"oh!...Sorry!...Honestly? I dont know. The records are vague" replied cortana.

"There should be more" said Chief.

"Radiance told me that there's only one place we can get the complete history accurate with every second after second, The Domain"

"Well, we know about that on Iridescent" said Linda.

"But that's not the entire story about it" said Cortana. The blue team eagerly looked at Cortana.

"Forerunners mentioned something about that. The domain behaves like a living being's memory. Even they do not know of its origins. But those who had the chance to look into the domain had never been the same after wards" Cortana said with a seriousness.

"Why is that?" asked Fred with equal seriousness.

"Because the forerunners mentioned that the domain doesn't show you the records when you wish. Instead it shows just the required information relevant to the situation only when needed. Didact was one of the forerunner to have accessed the domain and also assumed that's the reason why he was antagonized by their own people. They say he became very much obsessed after entering the domain" said Cortana.

"Hm...Something's really fishy about that!" said Linda to which Fred and Kelly nodded. Chief was even more confused than before after listening to what Cortana said all this time.

"You can say that again" replied Cortana

"What's your point on this history lesson Cortana?" asked chief demanding a sensible answer.

"My point is...If the precursors are so advanced to exist even for billions of years...What's not to tell that if they had even found ways to travel between different universes?" said Cortana in a doubt. The 4 four had a seriousness in their faces as they were exchanging looks at each other.

"So you are telling that the mystery portal was constructed by the precursors?" asked Fred.

"Maybe. But the question is when and why?' asked chief

"It's the usual chief, 'Curiosity'...That's what drives all sentient beings. If they had almost 15 billion years of life time, they must have certainly explored the entire universe in the mean time. At one point their knowledge base should have reached the saturation and starts questioning the existence of the non-existent" replied Cortana which left the spartans confused.

"I mean to say, what if they had discovered the existence of this universe and constructed a means to travel between them?" asked Cortana. Chief suddenly came up with something which even he felt crazy.

"Cortana! If what you say is true...Are there precursors in this universe? Could they even be here by the time we are talking?". Others were stunned with his question but couldn't deny his logic.

"I have the same doubt. After all, if they had created those portals, they must have passed through it" said Kelly.

"Hm...from what we learned so far, there seems to be a missing piece of history between the precursors and the signal from this universe, we find it, we get to know what's really going on" said Fred to which others nodded in acknowledgement.

"Until then, what's our role here?" asked Linda.

"For now, It's to help this galaxy fight the reapers. But even I'm interested in finding the whole truth about this. Why don't we leave that to time? Sure the consecutive incidents will one day lead to the answers we seek" replied Cortana. The 4 nodded in acceptance.

" 'SIGH'...So what do we do now?" asked Kelly

"Sure we don't have anything to do today. Also after Shepard has beaten the collectors, We have to converse with them regarding the fight with reapers. Until then, why don't you four take rest? You had been in fight for so long. Too much of anything is good for nothing and that applies even for the spartans" said Cortana. Then she vanished into chief's palm.

"Right, why dont we do some reading? We got a lot to learn about this galaxy" said fred.

"Good idea. Cortana, keep your ears on for any important transmissions" said chief

"I'll let you know" said Cortana.

After they walked their way to their quarters to study a lot about the galaxy they are living now. But the spartans are made especially for war. Who knows? May be they could get something to tend to just after an hour of rest.

 **Meanwhile somewhere outside the galaxy...**

 **"** Roland! How could this be milky way? Aren't we supposed to be elsewhere?" asked Lasky frustrated.

"I dont know sir. But the star charts...you need to see this" said Roland first bringing the UNSC starchart.

"This is our star chart...But look at the starchart of this milkyway" said roland bringing up the new star chart. This quite shook them.

"What the hell!? There are no UNSC or covenant controlled space here!" replied halsey in shock.

This is when arbiter's hologram came online. He didn't look quite particularly in a good mood.

"Captain Lasky. We have a problem" said arbiter.

"I know Arbiter. You too are worried about this galaxy we're landed in" said Lasky

"Then I'll ask you straight away. How's that we landed in the same galaxy?"

"Not only that arbiter. This isn't the milkyway we know. There are no UNSC or covenant controlled space here" replied Halsey. Arbiter nodded his head frowned.

"Listen, we're not gonna get anything by asking questions here. We'll enter the galaxy and see if we can find anything or anyone or the masterchief and his team if they are really here" said Lasky with a slight frown in his face. Arbiter looked at lasky and nodded. Halsey didn't know what to say.

"Alright captain. I'll order my fleet to move in"

"I'll do the same. Lasky out" said Lasky and cut the channel. Lasky then turned to Halsey for any explanation.

"Dr. Halsey?"

"Captain, I don't know what to make of this. We had never been in a situation like this before" replied . This is when commander carter and Palmer came to the bridge.

"Captain. Where are we?" asked carter. Lasky sighed for a moment and then replied.

"The galaxy we are about to enter is milkyway". Carter and Palmer looked confused.

"Didn't you say that we're gonna ride to another galaxy?" asked Palmer.

"Yes. But the portal led us straight here. But the weird thing is, this milkyway is not the one we used to know"

"What do you mean by that?"

"There are no UNSC or covenant controlled space here. No reach, harvest, eridani" replied Halsey. Carter and Palmer looked surprised

"How's that even possible?" asked carter distraught by the news.

"We've decided to enter the galaxy and see for ourselves. At this point there's nothing we can do here" replied lasky.

"Very well, We'll wait in the spartan deck. In case of emergency, send the word" said Palmer to which Lasky nodded. Then Carter and Palmer left the bridge

"Roland, what's our ETA if we make a jump from here?"

"It would be one hour sir"

"Fine. I need you to put us somewhere within the rim, but far from the centre. Also send a word to arbiter and give him the coordinates to follow suit" ordered Lasky.

"Aye aye sir! Initiating random silpspace jump. Sir, Arbiter has acknowledged our message"

"Good. Let's vanish" said

Then the UNSC fleet and Arbiter's fleet jumped into the slipspace using random coordinates put by Roland.

 **Eagle nebula, Terminus...**

The Eclipse and the Blood pack ships are stormed in the imir system. The pirates were smuggling tons and tons of eezo and iridium from the nearby planet for the highest bidder in omega. The eclipse fleet were led by salarian commander 'Yumik formin'. The blood packs were led by krogan 'Tantor qrask'. The blue suns, eclipse and the blood pack are the main pirate goups dominating the milky way piracy. They come directly under the control of the omega's pirate queen Aria T'loak. All she keeps are bunch of cut throats.

"What are you lookin' at pyjacks!? Get those containers loaded up fast. We need to deliver it in omega soon" roared the blood pack commander Tantor. All the containers filled with eezo and iridium are being packed up in the ships. The combined fleet strength of the eclipse and blood pack were around 46 ships. The reason for so many ships was simple, It was a big deal.

"Give me status report!" yelled Yumik.

"All containers had loaded up" came a reply.

"Fine, let's get the hell outta here" said yumik. This is when all of a sudden came a voice form the bridge.

"SIR!...Our sensors have picked up multiple gravity distortions 600 kms from our position"

"What!? What do you mean? Who are they?" yelled yumik.

" **STATIC**..This is Tantor. What the hell is happening out?"

"Dunno. Some unknown parties are trying to trespass"

"Then lets welcome those pyjacks with some fireworks!" said the krogan cut the channel.

"SHIT!"

"What is it?"

"Look at this. Never seen anything like these in any time. Also don't detect any E-ezo signatures" said a salarian in the bridge terminal.

Yumin took a look at the video feed only to have everyone in the bridge to drop their jaws and blink their eyes in terror.

"Holy shit! What are those things!? Ships!? yelled yumin.

 **...**

Aboard the infinity, lasky was waiting for the fleet to exit the slipspace and get to see what's outside.

"Captain, exiting slipspace in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...' finished roland and after exiting the slipspace, what they saw next was shocking to everyone. They saw more than 40 ships in position near a planet. But were smaller than their heavy cruisers and infinity. But the unknown parties had few dreadnought class ships that spanned 1.07 kms.

"Hah! Looks like we've got an advanced civilization here!" said lasky in mild enthusiam after seeing a star fleet. He felt half a burden leaving his head. But still worried if this turns out sour.

"Comm! Try establishing contact with the ships. Use standard encryption" ordered lasky.

"And drop a search and rescue beacon here with high grade UNSC encryption. If Chief is here, he'll find us"

"Aye aye sir!"

"Sir, you need to see this" said Roland bringing up the holo images of the ships with some highlighted ripples at the rear end of the ship's image also projecting some physical data representing the ripples. Halsey was seeing that for all the time and elected to speak.

"Some kind of inertial space damp. A mass fluctuation at the frequency of several THz" said Dr. Halsey intrigued.

"Is that from their engine?" asked Lasky.

"No. But somewhere in the stern. Can't say what it is?" replied Roland.

" **STATIC**...This is captain Merrick of the UNSC Phantom Moon. We are awaiting orders to engage the unknown parties"

"Captain! Stand by for further orders. Don't engage the unknown fleet"

"Yes sir. Merrick out"

"Sir!, Those unknown ships are hailing us" said the comm.

 **...**

"Fleet master! Our sensors have picked up 46 ships positioned 600 kms from us" said an elite.

"Who are they?' asked R' tas.

"Don't know. But their ships are well armed and reading several life signs aboard"

"Finally, someone who can answer our questions" said R' tas.

"Easy Vadum. They are completely unknown and we don't know if they are hostile or friendlies" said Arbiter.

"Arbiter, they are hailing us. But they use low grade encryption "

"Let us her then" said R' tas.

 **...**

"Sir, There are 16 ships in total. But look at their size! Even destiny ascension is smaller more than twice the size their ship!" said a salarian in the bridge shocked to see the behemoths. Yumik was thinking of the possibilities.

"Who would have such big ships? Unless they are rich enough to drain the whole galaxy of Eezo reserves! And how did they use a portal to get here!?" yumik thought loud.

"**STATIC**"...Yumik! This is Tantor...What are those ships? Never seen ships this big!"

"I don't know. But we can assume that it's an unknown party. There are two different kinds of ships in their fleet. One group of 9 ships look more or less the same and the other 7 looks totally different. So it means..."

"It means we're dealing with two different pyjacks that needs to be taken down" replied tantor and cut the channel abruptly.

"Try contacting them" said Yumik to the comm.

 **...**

"Sir! Those unknown ships are hailing us" said the comm

"Put them on a fleet wide transmission for the record" said Lasky. Everyone in the bridge were eager to listen to it.

"...This is captain Yumik of the Eclipse fleet...Identify yourself and surrender or you will be attacked"

Everyone heard a medium to high pitched voice in the comm channel that got everyone confused. Suddenly a low pitch animalistic voice came in the channel.

"This is Tantor of the Bloodpack. Surrender your ships or you will be crushed. State your business, Who are you?"

Everyone in the bridge were exchanging confused look. They couldn't figure a thing about who or what they are dealing with. They had never heard about these groups.

"Eclipse?...Bloodpack?...Who the hell are these assholes? The way they talked, they sound like local mercs or pirates" said lasky.

Of course, even in their world, they had encountered pirates. They were called Insurrectionists. But pirates is a wrong way of portraying them. Insurrectionists are private militia form the inner and outer colonies who opposed the UNSC government. They were more like rebels. But Lasky easily identified them as more than just rebels. He understood that talking with these mercs wont bring them much.

"Lasky, i don't think talking with them's gonna work" said halsey.

"But we're are not gonna pick a fight in an unknown place with unknown people" said lasky.

"This is captain Lasky of the UNSC. We are not hostiles and we got here through...strange circumstances. We can talk this over" said lasky. There was a silence for sometime. Then the salarian spoke out.

"If you want to talk, then surrender yourself to us"

"Listen, we are not a hostile force and we're not gonna surrender anything" said Lasky.

"You made your choice. Now prepare to die!" said the krogan Tantor in the comms and cut the channel.

"What the-...!?" Lasky tensed.

"Sir, those ships are turning their bow towards us!"

"Shit! Roland i need threat assessment. What about their weaponry?' asked Lasky.

"I've scanned the ships captain. They use similar mass accelerator weapons and torpedoes"

"Dr. Halsey? It's better if you get back to your quarters coz things are gonna get ugly here" said Lasky to which she nodded and left the bridge.

This is when Arbiter popped up on the projector.

"Arbiter!"

"Captain, it looks like they are hostile in nature. They are about to open fire on us"

"I know. My fleet is ready to counter attack"

"I will ready my fleet. But i'll wait for the enemy to open fire first" said arbiter.

"Fine! Good luck, Lasky out" Lasky then switched the channel.

"Carter?...Palmer?..."

"Captain, we heard the transmission. The spartan fire teams are ready to act on command" replied Palmer.

"Thank you Sarah"

"Roland, open a fleet wide channel"

"Yes sir"

"This is captain Lasky to the UNSC fleet. This is combat high alert! 46 unknown ships have targeted us, so be prepared to open fire as soon as the enemy return fire on us" ordered Lasky.

"Yes sir!...Acknowledged captain..." every captain in the fleet acknowledged.

...

The spartan fire teams were getting prepped on captain's order in the S-deck. Fire team majestic led by Paul de marco was checking on his team.

"Huh!...Looks like we got some nice ass kickin show" said De marco loading his BR85 Heavy barrel rifle.

"Who are these mercs? they just sound like big deal" said Hoya holding his helmet in his hand.

"Man! Can't believe we are in another galaxy! Is truly the Master chief and his team here? I would like to see them" said Madsen.

"Hold on pretty boy. We dont even know this place. So don't get you hopes high" said De Marco.

"Is it true that the spartan IIs were trained while they were kids?" asked Grant.

"Yeah...And our dear doctor Halsey was the one who recruited them" replied Hoya.

Thorne was looking at the data pad containing the map of new phoenix. He didn't mingle with his friends. He was staring at the pad. New Phoenix was his birth place and only a week ago, it turned to dust and ash by Didact's composer and he lost his family there. He then turned the pad and took his helmet in his hands and walked towards their team.

...

"I need the MAC guns ready. Roland, you-..."

"Sir! They are firing at us!" yelled an officer in the bridge.

"Dammit! shields?"

"Shields at 100%" replied the officer.

The holo projector shows numerous amounts of projectiles charging towards their ship. The 46 ships launched their mass rounds towards the UNSC and Separatists fleet.

The rounds closed the gap and hit the ships. The slugs accelerated by mass effect fields rained over the 2 fleet but only to be shrugged off by their advanced shielding systems as if it was nothing. The ships felt vibrations of the mass's explosions over the body but no damage.

"Sir! Shields at 96% and no physical damage detected". Lasky was stunned to hear this. After seeing rains of mass slugs charged towards them, Lasky thought his fleet will take a brunt of a damage. But now he got his hopes.

"It looks like ours can take a lot" muttered Lasky.

"Captain, I have the targeting solutions. Arbiter's fleet is moving into position to attack them" said Roland.

"Good, Lets show them what we got" ordered Lasky.

"All ships fire on my command" said Lasky in a fleet wide transmission. The pirate ships were loading their weapons to fire again.

"Fire!" ordered Lasky

 _In Shadow of intent..._

"Fleet master! Shields at 96% and our torpedoes are online"

"Mark the targets and launch the torpedoes. Time to return the favor" replied R'tas.

...

 _In one of the pirate ships..._

"Captain, Their ships use a more powerful shield than our kinetic barriers. Our attacks have not even made a scratch" said an asari eclipse merc.

"What!?' shocked yumin.

"Sir! They are firing at us" yelled another human eclipse merc.

In a fraction of second, 9 pirate ships were blown to bits and pieces.

"SHIT! They have taken down 9 of our ships" yelled the human merc.

"Yumik! I lost four ships! We need to fire the torpedoes!" yelled Tantor in the comm.

"FIRE ALL TORPEDOES AND BROAD SIDE CANNONS AT THEM!" yelled yumik. But before they could fire, they detected 7 energy projectiles coming towards them.

"Sir! Something's on our way" yelled the asari merc. Yumik saw through the window.

7 bright energy balls were flying towards them at high speeds. Before he could utter a word, the 7 cruisers in the fleet were etched away by the hot plasma bypassing the strongest kinetic barriers the cruisers possess. But the plasma were still energetic and carried greater momentum. 5 balls tore through the ships and hit another 5 ships hiding behind thus making a count of 12. 21 ships were turned to ash in mere moments.

"SHIT!...SHIT!...We lost 21 ships, only 25 are remaining. Their weapons are a lot powerful" yelled Yumik. Then in the open channel, yumik heard Tantor yelling at the remaining ships.

"FIRE ALL TORPEDOES and BROADSIDE CANNONS!...NOW!"

The 25 ships launched all their mass accelerators, broadside cannons and disruptor torpedoes. The rounds stormed towards the fleet, but to no effect. They only managed to drain 10% of their shields.

Captain Lasky then ordered to launch the rapier missiles at the remaining ships. The pirate fleet tried using their GARDIAN Lasers to evade the attacks. But unfortunately, the missile tracking system was overridden by roland himself thus countered the laser effects and brought the missiles to the fleet. Their ships lost their kinetic barriers in the explosions caused by the missile barrage.

Yumik and Tantor started to get panic as the situation got out of control. Yumik was wondering how weapons like that fire constantly without overheating. Also the absence of Eezo or Mass effect was troublesome, but now was not the time for him to research on that. And in seconds, after the missile hit, 9 more MAC rounds were fired by the 9 UNSC ships that tore through the pirate vessels destroying 9 more ships. Only 16 more ships remain.

Yumik and Tantor decided that they wont stand against those unknown fleet. They decided to retreat so both ordered their remaining ships to turn and jump into omega.

The UNSC and Separatists observed their retreat. They didn't want anyone to escape, so Lasky ordered his ships to fire the MAC while Infinity fired the energy projector. Meanwhile Arbiter asked his fleet to fire their Energy projectors to hit them before they escape. They instantly managed to destroy 14 ships but unfortunately 2 ships escaped the space by FTL.

...

"Report" Ordered Lasky.

"All ships are fine captain, no physical damage and casualties" replied an officer in the bridge. Lasky then contacted Arbiter and he appeared in the Holo table.

"Arbiter, how's your fleet?"

"We are fine Captain, Thanks. But cant say the same for those honor-less pirates" replied the arbiter

"But still we missed 2 of them" said Lasky.

"Dont worry. They might have gone to lick their wounds. Now what do we do, captain?"

"I have dropped the search and rescue beacon for the Master chief and his team. We all have lots questions to be answered, About this place, about those unknown enemies, the strange technologies they use" said Lasky.

"Do you think the spartan and his friends are here? I mean, how long are we going to wait here?" asked Arbiter.

"We'll wait until he shows up. We used the same portal he used. So he must be here somewhere. But he needs time to intercept the message"

"Until then?"

"Until then? Like it or not, But we have to stay here. After what we have seen, learned and experienced, I don't think that roaming this galaxy on our own is a good idea" said Lasky. Arbiter thought for a moment and understood the logic in Lasky's words.

"Very well captain. We'll stay here and hide ourselves as far as possible" said Arbiter and he cut the channel.

"Strange, those ships used a different kind of FTL. It was not slipspace. It's like they used it in the normal space itself" said Roland.

"We'll see to it once we find the chief" said Lasky, standing in a comfortable posture giving a thought about what just happened.

 **...**

 **In Spartan's base, Titan nebula...**

The blue team spent next 6 hours in their quarters, seated and the four were still in their armors except the helmet. They in fact studying a lot about this galaxy, it's civilizations, cultures, technologies etc.,

"This mass effect concept is quite interesting. The way the element they call 'Eezo' can be used to manipulate gravity is astounding" said Fred.

"Yeah. Looks like every thing ranging from basic households to starship weaponry use this technology" replied Kelly.

"Next is their 'Omnitool'. Looks like it can virtually perform every operations even micro fabrications" said Linda.

"But the people here thinks that the mass relays were constructed by these extinct race they call 'protheans' only the fact is that they are not" said chief.

"And they wont realize it until the reapers knock their front door" replied fred.

"You know? One day we must try one those technologies to feel it ourselves-..." kelly talked immediately interrupted by cortana's emergence from the nearby pedestal.

"Guyz!"

"What is it Cortana?" asked Linda.

"Listen - To - This!" said cortana pressing her tone with both shock and smile. Everyone came closer to her pedestal. Then Cortana brought a hologram representing a transmission. The transmission played...

 _"*STATIC*...This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity and the eight fleet. This is to any UNSC personnel in this galaxy. We are in need of immediate search and rescue...I repeat...This is Captain Thomas Las-..."_ Cortana ended the transmission after it started to repeat.

The blue team were absolutely stunned with the transmission. Finally, they got what they were hoping for after a month long wait. Keeping their fingers crossed, now they felt relieved after hearing from their own people.

"Huh! Thought they would never come!" said Fred.

"But now they have! Cortana, can you locate the origin?" asked Chief.

"I already did. Their transmission came from here" said Cortana bringing up a holo image of a star system.

"It's in the Eagle nebula" said Cortana.

Everyone were exchanging looks in surprise. Finally they turned to their leader. Chief traded looks with each of them for quite sometime gathering his thoughts and finally spoke.

"What are we waiting for?"


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass Effect franchise.**

 **Chapter 13: Reconciliation**

 **Omega space station (10 hours after the terminus incident)...**

Aria T' Loak, the omega's pirate queen was sitting in her couch leaning her head back with her eyes closed. and hands spread to her sides. Her usual batarian and turian guards were standing with their assault rifles guarding her. Asari dancers were performing their pole dance bending their curvy bodies and other folks were enjoying it, A perfect night club. Aria was in fact peacefully listening to the club waltz.

Bray, a batarian assistant entered the main door to the afterlife passing the elcor bouncer. He seemed to be in a hurry. He ran into the main club, turned left to see aria T' loak. He reached aria but was gasping for breath. Aria didn't notice that. After few seconds catching his breath, he spoke.

"Aria! We got a problem" said bray still slightly gasping for air.

Aria lifted her head calm and cool with her face showing irritation.

"Bray! You fuckin dare disturb my peace!" yelled Aria.

"Bu...But! i said we got a problem!" said bray raising his voice.

Aria got out of her couch and slowly walked.

"Shit happens everyday, bray. And it's something i deal it like i have my breakfast and beer!" said Aria not truly understanding the depth of the problem.

"Huuh!...But not something like this!" Bray replied, showing her a data pad.

Aria looked at the data pad for quite sometime and then she took it from him. It was in fact a report of events from the eclipse and blood pack fleet she sent for mining iridium, Eezo and platinum in the terminus.

She started reading the reports and it went like...

 _/: Galactic std time 8:00 AM_

 _/: Event: Mining Minerals: Iridium (Qty-600tons)_

 _Platinum(Qty-820tons)_

 _Eezo(20 Std loads)_

 _/: Galactic std time 12:00 PM_

 _/: Event: Mining Status: Aria asked us to scratch everything possible from the region._

 _Almost 60% of the work completed_

Aria stopped reading and looked at bray and spoke

"So, this is the job i gave those people. It seems they have finished it. How this is a problem?"asked Aria in slight anger.

"You haven't read it completely" said bray. She at him for a second and then she continued to read.

The further reports she read made her feel like a big rock dropped on her head. Her face turned from anger to frustration and irritation. She was glancing at it fast and threw the data pad in his face in anger.

"What the hell is this!? I gave a job to that salarian and that krogan with 46 ships and they return empty handed!? What's this attack they had mentioned here?" asked Aria totally pissed off.

"I'm sorry! but only yumik and his very ship returned from the terminus...by luck!" said bray, his voice trembling in fear. Aria's eyes widened after what he said.

"Only one!? what about tantor?"

"SS..Sorry. He perished with the 45 ships" said bray with his face frowned.

Aria tightened her fist in anger and faint blue energy surged around her. But for a moment, she closed her eyes and calmed herself down. Then she spoke again. She knew her aggression not gonna solve anything.

"Who attacked them?"

"Yumik said the attackers claimed they were from...uhhh...U..N..S..C? Think so" said bray trying to recall what yumik said.

"UNSC? What is-...Wait, That rings a bell!...Are they humans!?" asked Aria in shock

"Yumik wasn't sure. But he said they sounded like humans" replied bray.

"Where is yumik now?"

"He and his survived crew are in the clinic. They suffered injuries in the fight" replied bray.

Aria simply stood silent for quite sometime. Even she doesn't meddle in humanity's business, she still possess profound knowledge of the galactic community. Though staying away from the alliance, she knew them very much. As far as her memories go, she had never heard of this UNSC in the alliance.

But suddenly, something stirked her mind with a blow. She recalled the recent incidents regarding an unknown giant ship belonging to an unknown people that appeared in this galaxy a month ago. She also recalled that they visited the citadel and met with the council and the news of their presence spread like a wild fire. She finally figured out who might it be.

"SHIT!...Must be them" said Aria.

"Who?" asked bray.

"Do you remember the recent incidents? A strange ship that appeared outta nowhere a month ago in the galaxy who even met with the council...Hm...What did they called themselves?...Spa-...Yes! Spartans and from the UNSC" said Aria.

"Ah! yes! Them. Even they carried strange technologies with them. Now the whole galaxy knew of their presence"

"So they decided to get in my way, Huh? They will regret it!" said Aria gritting her teeth.

"Actually, Those spartans didn't involve in this yet" said bray which made Aria to turn instantly in shock.

"What do you mean, they didn't? Didn't you say UNSC, bray?" asked Aria.

"Yes, but i never said it was the spartans" replied bray. Aria raised her eyebrow and folded her hands.

"What are you getting at?"

"Actually, everyone knows that the spartans have only one ship with them. But yumik said there were 16 ships that attacked them" said bray that stunned Aria to the core.

"16!? Bray? you are starting to piss me off" said Aria in deep agonized tone.

"Listen, yumik said there were 16 ships out of which 2 were so big like the one those spartans have" said bray. Aria's face turned to frustration. She never expected anything like this. As everyone got used to the fact of those spartans presence, she thought they just crossed her line. But now, it looked like as if she got hammered.

"16 ships that belonged to this UNSC?" murmured Aria to herself in absolute shock. She nodded her head in disappointment.

"What's the hell's goin on!?" thought Aria.

There was a man dressed in a brown jacket with white inner shirt and jean pants. He had a brown hair with a mustache and a goatee. He finished having finished 3 rounds of beer standing in the bar near the Aria's lounge. He was in fact eavesdropping on the Aria and his assistant bray's conversation. He maintained a calculative. He was infact recording everything in his omni-tool.

"Hm, That's interesting" the man said and he left the bar.

 **...**

 **Aboard Infinity (1 hour after the terminus Incident)...**

Captain Lasky was having his hot chocolate in his cabin and he's been here for 3 hours. Things were rough until they finished of the unknown pirates or whoever. Lasky kept his palm over his forehead and closed his eyes, thinking about the recent events.

"First, an unknown portal, then a galaxy that looks same as the milky way, now fought some unknown fleet claiming to be pirates! What the hell just happened? Hope chief and his team have the answer we need...*SIGH* " thought Lasky

Suddenly the video screen in front him glowed and he saw palmer.

"Sarah! please, I'm in no mood of talking, Already having a rough day!" said Lasky feeling tired.

"Hah! And you're not the only one Tom! But we need you in the CIC. Looks like we've hit upon something. Also Arbiter will participate in the council"

"Arbiter? Is he coming here?" asked Lasky suddenly getting up.

"No. Only his hologram"

Lasky was silent for sometime. He really hated the day. He thought he knew what he was getting into, but now it looks like he's neck deep into the unknown. All he wanted now was to see the chief and his team assist him and get off the place. But he now commands a fleet and there's no compromise when duty calls.

"Right, I'll be there in a minute" said Lasky to which Palmer nodded and the terminal was cut.

"Now what!?" thought Lasky with a slight grunt and left his cabin.

He was on his way to the CIC. He took the tram system. The marines and other officers saluted him on his way. He then finally reached the CIC. The door opened and he entered the CIC. He saw everyone were waiting for him.

Carter, Palmer, and Arbiter's hologram were waiting for him. The 2 spartans gave a quick salute.

"At ease!"

"Captain" nodded Arbiter

"Good to see you Arbiter. So, care to tell what's this about?" asked Lasky.

"Gladly. Roland?" called on Palmer. The infinity's AI appeared at the middle of the round table. The CIC was big enough to fit everyone.

"Captain, I'll get to the point" said roland with his holographic face serious. Lasky wondered what it could be.

"The 46 ships we engaged? Their crew are totally a new faction. Alien beings we've never seen before"

"Do you mean to say we are dealing with a first contact scenario?"asked Lasky.

"In a way, Yes. But there's something else" said roland to which others listened carefully.

"We didn't destroy their entire fleet. 2 of their ships escaped. But before they could, i managed to infiltrate one of their ship's mainframe using the ship's cyber warfare suites. You won't believe this! But this is what we found" said roland bringing up multiple holograms big enough in the room for everyone to see and interact.

"What are these datas? And what did you do to the ship from which you got the data" asked Carter.

"This is an information archive designated _'The Codex'_. I found this codex has every information about the milky way galaxy. But that ship, i scrambled their engines, so should have exploded by now"

"What can you show us from this codex?" asked .

"Our preliminary scans were right. This galaxy is indeed Milky way, but not the one we know"

"In what way?" asked Palmer.

"One of the information is that this galaxy doesn't have the covenant species" replied roland which stunned everyone in the room. They became speechless.

"Wha-...What!?" asked Lasky in shock.

"Is this information reliable, construct?" asked Arbiter who was absolutely shocked by this.

"Nothing's fabricated if that's what you are asking. I'm just merely showing what's in the codex"

"If there's no covenant, Then who lives here?" asked Dr. Halsey doubts and confusion eating her mind.

"These" roland started to do a slideshow of the different species with their names, "are the races that occupy this galaxy". Images and information of Asari, Salarians, Turians, Volus, Drell, Elcor, Hanar, Quarians, Humans, krogans were slowly played out by Roland, including the citadel and it's council.

Everyone slowly got to see the information clearly. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"Wait! Maybe they could have resided in the other part of the galaxy we haven't yet explored" said Lasky. Others gave a supportive look towards him.

"Do you have this galaxy's star map?" asked Arbiter.

"I got everything from their mainframe" said roland.

"And captain, I know you would say that. But unfortunately, it's not true"

"Now, This is our galaxy" roland said bringing the hologram of their milky way. "And this is the milky way we are in" said roland bringing the hologram of the new milky way.

Everyone got to see the two galaxies. Both were 100% identical.

"Can you cross reference the star charts?" asked Carter.

"That's what i'm going to do" said roland. First roland highlighted their milkyway with the total number of star systems occupied by both humans and covenant species.

"These are the systems occupied by us". Then roland highlighted the new milkyway with star systems occupied by these new species. Everyone including the Arbiter were shocked to see that.

"Roland? I got one word for this. 'BULLSHIT' " said Lasky out of frustration. Roland folded his hands and nodded in disappointment. Dr. Halsey was silently running her eyes over the 2 star charts. She was stunned to see that.

"There is an 80% match. Most of the systems we occupy are occupied by those same species" said roland. Others were stunned with what roland said. They couldn't believe that this galaxy is not only the milky way but also no races they knew exist here.

"Construct, that system? it's ours, Urs. But you have marked it occupied. What is the meaning of this?" asked Arbiter in slight tense seeing his system's been occupied here in this galaxy, coz roland said there were no covenant here.

"That's not your system here. In this galaxy, the name of that system is...ugh...Boltzmann?" said roland raising his eyebrow in confusion. He then turned towards others sharing a look of confusion.

"That's a human scientist's name!" said dr. halsey with her eyes slightly widened.

"If it's named after a human, then humans live in this galaxy. Even in the same Sol or somewhere else" said Lasky.

What they learned so far was truly intriguing, confusing and mind blowing. Lasky's face frowned. He couldn't understand what truly happened after they went through the portal.

"Actually, I came across this human faction called the 'Systems Alliance' in the same Sol system. It is true that humans live here and also they have conquered many exoplanets" said roland.

"But i don't recall humans go by that faction name! How could it be?" asked Palmer surprised.

"That's not the entire story. This is quite shocking. Do you know what galactic year is this?" asked roland. Everyone looked puzzled.

"2185 A.D" replied roland.

"WHAT!?" yelled Lasky, Palmer, Carter in unison with shock.

"Construct? Are you saying that we have traveled to the past?" asked Arbiter.

"Arbiter, do you think in the past humans had any group called 'systems alliance'? No! And this system 'Boltzmann'? Our records show that no star system in our galaxy goes by that name! And also your people have occupied the 'URS' system for several millennia located in the same region. The records in this galaxy shows that 'boltzmann' is currently occupied by humans!" explained roland in raised tone.

Others were stunned with the information. Different thoughts spun in their heads but couldn't find any solution. Dr. halsey was walking here and there crushing her mind for an answer. But something crazy hit her mind.

"Wait! This is milky way but, unlike ours. The star charts are same but occupied by different new and unknown races. Also the galactic year in here is 2185. Is that even possible!?" asked halsey with her face surprised as if she's got a crazy idea. Others got her attention.

"Could it be that we are in an-..." started halsey slowly picking her words.

"Alternate reality doc!?" asked roland exactly what she had in her mind. She nodded 'yes'.

"I knew you would say something like that!" said roland.

"Alternate reality? You mean to say history got manipulated?" asked Palmer. Of course they knew the sci-fi stuffs like the alternate reality for which no proof had been found yet.

Lasky, Carter and Arbiter didn't know what to say. At this point, they are ready to believe in anything instead of rounding up with no answer to their situation.

"Dr. Halsey?" called Lasky in desperation.

"First you need to understand that 'it doesn't mean that something's not there just because we don't see it!" said Halsey.

"So you believe this to be an alternate reality stuff?" asked Lasky.

"Slipspace anomalies can have unimaginable amount of effects. It can lock a ship in a closed loop situation, It can trap a ship in a different dimension, it can cause people to simply vanish or even transport any matter back through time or even cause a 'causal loop' " explained Halsey.

"Yes, I have read a lot of early days reports regarding these accidents. But what about now?" asked Lasky.

"Alternate realities are created when a history that is, the past is manipulated that leads a new chain of events and incidents and a new future" explained halsey.

"Doctor Halsey may be right. The forerunner crystals we found in the menachite complex of your planet reach caused a certain spatial and temporal anomaly in my flagship while we made a jump. Two of my elite zealots vanished from my ship who were present near the drive chamber. If that is possible, then this can be too" explained Arbiter.

"But this is not the case of alternate realities" said Halsey.

"How do you say that?" asked Carter.

"We all saw what this galaxy possess. It's the same milky way, but nothing is consistent with the place we come from. So this is not some manipulated history. We are totally in a different universe" finished Halsey which made everyone to become dumbstruck.

"Can you elaborate?" asked Lasky.

"It's simple captain. Universes that evolve in a different path. A place created out of multiple choices and probabilities. In the early 21st century, some physicists believed that a powerful singularities like the super massive black hole in the galactic centre can actually connect our place to different parallel universes. May be today we might have actually proved that theory" explained halsey.

"But we didn't come through a blackhole doc. It was an artificially created portal. We all saw the massive structure in the lagoon nebula" said roland.

"And that's were the answer lies, roland. If we are indeed in the parallel universe and that artificial portal led us here, then all these mysteries can be solved if we know the portal's true nature" said halsey.

"Arbiter, You said that the portal was not forerunner in nature, didn't you? Who might have built it then?" asked Lasky.

"I'm not sure captain. At this point, I believe the spartan and his friends would have learned something" replied Arbiter.

"He's right. Until we find the chief and his team, there's nothing we can learn here" said Palmer.

"And is it even safe staying here?" asked Carter.

"We are at the edge of the galaxy and the scan shows only minor activity in this region. We all hope that the chief gets the message soon" said roland.

Everyone were relieved to hear that but it will take sometime for them to process everything they learned so far. Until the blue team reaches them, they have to keep waiting.

"Alright, let's stay here. Thanks for attending the council Arbiter. Everyone dismissed" said Lasky. The holograms were turned off. Others left CIC to their respective places. This was one hell of day for them.

 **...**

 **Valhallan threshold, (10 days after shepard and co., met the spartans near haestorm)**

Commander Shepard and his team were in the quarian flotilla and are in the key ship in the valhallan threshold. Shepard's quarian friend Tali' zorah was accused of a crime by the admiralty board that she illegally sent few geth parts to her father Rael' zorah, a quarian scientist to the lab ship. Shepard decided to help his friend.

Shepard, Tali and Garrus walked inside the hall way. There were some quarian soldiers staring at them.

"Commander shepard, Ms. Tali'zorah" said a soldier.

"We are here for my friend's trial" said shepard.

"I know. The admiralty board is waiting" replied the soldier.

"Then lead the way" said shepard. The soldier nodded and walked up front. The three followed them.

"Tali, don't get me wrong. But did you really send the geth parts to your father?" asked garrus.

"Garrus, I can assure you. Those geth parts are useless to a point that you can only dig up few scraps of credits in the omega market and then again, selling geth parts are illegal throughout the galaxy" replied Tali.

Tali knew she didn't do anything wrong but still she's tensed to face the music. Tali might be a skilled engineer, but when it comes to the matters of judiciary, she's frightened as hell.

"Don't worry Tali, We'll get you out of this" shepard comforted her. Tali nodded with a smile which they can't notice under the mask.

The soldier stopped moving and pointed them towards the main hall.

Shepard, garrus and tali walked and turned to the main hall. The first quarian they saw was Admiral Shala' Raan, Tali's aunt.

"Aunt Shala!" said tali loud in happiness. The admiral turned towards her.

"Welcome, Tali' zorah vas normandy!" replied shala.

"It's good to se-...Wait! Vas normandy!?" asked tali in confusion. She was wondering if her true title had been stripped off.

"Yes. The admiralty decided to strip you of your title and respective accommodations" replied shala.

"And you didn't stop them!?" asked shepard in surprise.

"I'm sorry commander. But the odds are stacked up against tali" replied shala.

"My ass! Do they really have the proper evidence to accuse her?" asked garrus in slight anger.

"Just what is necessary. Still I believe in you, Tali. But one thing that eats me away is that, how the active geths got to the lab ship? You said you only sent useless geth parts" replied shala.

"I dont know aunt shala. I just did what my father requested" replied tali.

There were other prominent admiralty members in the main hall. Admiral Han' Gerrel, Admiral Daro' Xen, Admiral Zaal' koris and to their surprise, there was Kal' reegar.

"And one more thing. As you are named 'vas normandy', your captain will be the one to stand up for you" said Shala.

Shepard and garrus didn't quite understand the statement.

"What does that mean?" asked shepard.

"It means shepard, you will act as my advocate" said tali which shocked shepard.

"Ughh!...I didn't expect this...Fine, I will do it for you" said shepard. Tali nodded in acknowledgement.

"Then, let the trial begin" said shala.

In a few minutes,everyone gathered at the centre of the hall with the 3 admirals standing asthe judges.

Shala' raan begins by saying that tali was accused of bringing active geth parts to the flotilla. She rejected by stating that her father only asked for useless geth parts and also she double checked everything before she sent it to her father in the labship. Shepard argues that tali always put forth the migrant fleet's safety first and that she would never commit such a crime.

Koris tries to blame tali but Xen comes to tali and shepard's defense. The admirals also mentioned that the geth had killed everyone in the labship including her father. This stunned all the three. Tali became frowned with the information. But shepard says that if the geth are still active, they must be eliminated and the lab ship should be secured. After giving a brief thought, they decided to permit shepard, tali and garrus to care of that. And also stated that if they die, tali will be posthumously pardoned.

Then the three talks with different admirals to share their opinions. Koris was too offensive towards tali and even stated that they will take back rannoch by force when shepard asked them about the quarian's situation. Xen was supportive to tali and even said she's ready to take back geth under their control as they were their creation and their responsibility. Shala' raan stayed neutral in her opinion but can always be counted to do the right thing. Kaal' reager was supportive to shepard and tali as they saved him at haestorm. He said that if tali needs someone to voice their support for her, they can count on him. This made tali to feel happy and relieved.

Then shepard tali and garrus took off to the lab ship to secure it. After reaching the lab ship, they managed to fight off all the geth forces. Then they found the body of Rael'zorah. Tali was heart broken at the sight of her dead father. She never thought that it could have been this serious.

"Dammit!...Father!...What have you done?" Tali wept. Shepard and garrus comforted her.

"Hey, Tali. It's okay. Maybe your father never knew he had this coming" said shepard.

"You are right. There's nothing we can do. Let's check on his omni-tool" said Tali.

Tali' zorah's omni-tool blinked and interfaced with her father's module. Then she downloaded a footage showing her father's recording.

" _Initial scans shows that the intel-networks can be recovered but still need other soft memory and processing module to complete the geth project"_ Rael'zorah's video was played.

"Shepard! This isn't right! My father?...He?...I assumed he was working on a new weapon to combat the geth"said Tali who was tensed and confused after watching the video.

"Listen, we'll enter the core chamber. We may learn what truly happened. We can't jump into conclusions with this footage" replied Garrus.

"He's right. Let's move in" said Shepard and the three moved in further.

They finally reached the core chamber. There were 3 get primes in the room. Tali used her overload ability to fry the prime's shields. Then Shepard used the shockwave biotic ability to stun the primes. Then they open fired and killed all the hree primes.

"That's it" said Garrus.

"Shepard, there's a terminal over there. Let's check that" said Tali. Shepard nodded and the three went near the terminal.

Shepard used his omni-tool to download the content from the terminal. Then another Rael'zorah's footage was played.

 _"The memory and post-processing modules are intact. Individual geth platform shows significant growth in neural network"_ said Rael'zorah.

 _"Dr. Zorah, if this works, We may finally set things right. The geth will be back under our control"_ said another quarian scientist.

 _"What about your daughter? Does she know this?"_ asked a quarian engineer.

 _"No, we cannot drag Tali into the politics. whatever we do, it's only us...*SIGH*...I promised my child that I'll present her our home"_ said Rael'zorah, then suddenly

 _"Wait! this can't be!"_

 _"What is it?"_

 _"I'm reading some kind of network hosting"_

 _"What? We never developed any networked intelligence platforms!"_

 _"SIR! Scans shows hyper neural net growth and terabytes of data sharing...SHIT!...They are online! they are getting up...Stop them!...STOP THEM!...*GUN SHOTS*...*STATIC*..."_ the footage ended.

The three were silent for a time, stunned and shocked with what they saw.

"So basically, my father was rebuilding the geth to find a way to bring it under their control" said Tali frowned.

"He wanted to take back control over geth, so that your people can force them to leave your home world" said Shepard.

"When the board learns of this, they will posthumously strip him of all the titles and exile him. But his intentions were good. He only meant the welfare of our dying race. Too sad that things didn't work right for him" said Tali frowned over what she learned.

"Shepard? What are you going to do?" asked Tali now tensed about shepard's decision.

"I...I don't know yet. We'll get to board first. then let's decide" replied shepard in dilemma.

"Whatever, I hope you will do the right thing" said Tali. Then everyone left the place.

After taking back 'Alarei' the labship, Shepard, Tali and Garrus returned to the key ship to visit the admiralty board.

The four admirals and every other quarian including veetol' nara and kal' reegar were relieved to see them back safe and sound.

"Sorry, We're late" said Tali.

"We have taken 'Alarei' back to our control" said Shepard.

"Thank you commander! I was worried for a moment" said Koris.

"So, Did you find any evidence for what happened in the labship to support your claims?" asked Shala raan.

There was a moment of pause. Shepard and Tali shared a glance at each other's face. Then Shepard walked up front.

"Shepard!..." whispered Tali in tense.

"So? This is all about your people going to war with the geth, not your people's welfare!" yelled Shepard.

"So, i take it that you don't have the evidence. In that case..." said Koris and shepard interrupted immediately.

"To hell with this! Tali saved your lives people, more than you can remember. She helped me stop saren and geth, she's helping me stop the collectors. She helped you in haestorm! And all you do in return as a favor is charging her with petty crimes!?" yelled Shepard.

The other quarians were murmuring among themselves. The suddenly Veetor came and talked

"Yes, Shepard's right! Tali saved my life on freedom's progress. I stand for her"

"And me too! Tali did a lot of favor to us people that you assholes ever did! Shit! I'm sick of this. If you are gonna exile tali, then you have to exile every single person standing here for her!" said Kal' reegar as if warning them.

The Admirals took their time to pass judgement. They were thinking about what these people expressed. Then they activated thier omni-tool and passed their judgement.

"Tali' zorah, As there are no evidence that point your crimes, we thereby clear you of all charges. You are free to go, Tali' zorah vas normandy" said Shala raan passing the final judgement.

"Thank you commander, for standing for one of our people" said Xen.

"If you are truly thankful, then don't throw your lives away in the geth war! Listen, the reapers are coming and we'll need your help in repelling them" said shepard.

"We'll consider your advice, commander shepard" replied Koris.

Then the board was dismissed. The crowd was disbanded. Shepard, Tali and Garrus exchanged few words with the 4 admirals, veetor and reegar. They talked about the war with the geth and shepard's claim about reapers arrival. They took 20 minutes to have conversation with everyone, then decided to leave.

"Alright friends, if there's nothing else, then shall we? Those Thannix cannons needed some some calibration in the normandy" said Garrus with a faint laugh.

"That sound like you! Alright let's go" said Tali. Shepard nodded and the three went.

"Joker? We are coming in" said Shepard.

"Aye aye! Commander" replied joker.

"Shepard!" Tali called out as if terrified.

"What?" asked Shepard in tense.

"We forgot to mention the admirals about those new peoples with strange technologies we met near haestorm" said Tali.

"You mean those people called 'Spartans' of the UNSC?" came a female voice behind the three. Shepard, Tali and Garrus were freaked to hear that. The three turned their heads instantly in tense to see none other than the Admiral Shala raan.

"Aunt Shala?...But..." staggered Tali.

"How do I know? We got the information from one of our people working in Illium. Those people had indeed grabbed the attention of the whole galaxy" replied Shala.

"Hmm, Interesting! They claimed to belong to a different universe. I can simply say in human words 'BULLSHIT'. But we got the information on the technology they use. No mass effect principles, weapons both conventional and unimaginable, strange armors, incredibly powerful and a very large ship that can never be constructed by any of the species in the galaxy..." said Shala keeping her finger in the chin part of her helmet.

"We actually met them near haestorm. They aided us in eliminating geth and rescue Tali" said Shepard.

"Why!? Even if what they said is true, Why would they help us unknowns?" asked Shala in surprise.

"Actually, they said they came here only to help us fight the reapers" replid Garrus.

"WHAT?" shocked Shala.

"At first, even I thought they were lying. But they showed us some proof and it appears that they were telling the truth" said Shepard.

"But, Why would they help us? Why did they even came here?"asked Shala.

Shepard came close to Shala slowly and talked.

"Admiral, I'm going to tell you something. Those spartans actually hold a base in a planet for which I have the coordinates. They actually gave me and Tali their location and also asked Tali to give the location to you people" said Shepard.

"Why? What's the point?" asked Shala.

"Aunt Shala, They said, once my mission with shepard is over, They wanted to meet the representatives of certain races in their location. But until then, you need to keep it a secret" said Tali.

Admiral Shala Raan was a reasonable woman among the quarians. She always thinks more than twice before making a decision. She gave a thought on this. On one end, she's afraid if those strangers have their own agenda. On the other end, Shepard and Tali had already met them, so she can take their word for it. Besides,she wonders why those spartans wanted to talk to this galaxy race's representatives.

"Fine. So be it" said Shala.

"Thank you Admiral" said Shepard.

Then Shepard, Tali and Garrus boarded the normandy and left the quarian flotilla.

 **...**

 **Omega station...**

Jones, is a cerberus operative and has a house rented in omega. He use that place to carry out his ops whatever cerberus command throws at him. He possess some of the advanced gears that cerberus provided him including a portable QEC.

He then sat near a computer. He then started working on it. He was infact creating a fake eclipse profile of himself carefully that no one can notice it. Cerberus's high level encryption are hard to break. So he doesn't have to worry about blowing his cover. After fifteen minutes of work, he finally created his profile and then uploaded into his omnitool.

He then left his apartment and headed straight to the clinic. After the bio-virus attack, some places had been quarantine including the one to the clinic. But after, doctor mordin solus devised a cure, the virus was rendered harmless and the quarantines were removed.

Agent Jones entered the clinic which is now operated by Mordin's assistant, Daniels. At the entrance, a turian guard was standing and stopped.

"Ahem! Who are you?" asked the guard.

"I'm jones, Eclipse operative on behalf of Aria T'loak. I'm here to question the Eclipse ship captain Yumik" said Jones.

"Your identity proof?" asked the guard.

He then tapped into the omni-tool and displayed the identity. The guard took a close look and seemed to be convinced.

"Right, Yumik's in ward. That Salarian's pretty scared!" said the guard.

"That won't be a problem. Just here for questioning" said Jones. The guard gestured him to move in.

Jones searched for the ward 3. He found it and entered the ward. There he saw a lone salarian. He assumed him to be Yumik. He then approached the salarian.

"Yumik?" asked Jones.

"What? Who? I don't know! Leave me!" replied yumik terrified.

"Whoa! Easy pal! I'm eclipse agent!" said Jones. The salarian appeared to be relieved and took a moment to calm down.

"Huh! It was truly a bad day for me" said yumik

"Listen, I know that you and 45 other ships were attacked by an unknown ships" said jones.

"Shit! did you say attacked? Dammit! it was a slaughter!" said yumik gritting his teeth.

"Aria sent me to gather any evidence regarding this attack. Any footage or what so..." said jones.

"Aria sent you?"

"Only for the evidence"

"Hah! I knew that bitch doesn't give a shit even if we are dead. She'll simply find a replacement" thought yumik "Fine, Here is the data in my omni-tool. A complete recording" said yumik.

Jones's face turned more curious. Yumik then sent the package to his omni-tool. After complete transfer, he turned it off.

"Alright yumik, I gotta give it to Aria soon or she'll have my head. Sooo..."

"Fine, see you later" replied yumik.

Jones nodded and left the clinic in a hurry.

He then went to his apartment and then locked the whole place to prevent any guests from entering. He sat down in front of his computer and turned it on. Then he connected his omni-tool to the computer to upload the video. After completing the upload, He then played it.

The video played everything from the arrival of 16 ships from what appeared to be a portal. Then a fight between the 46 mercenary ships and 16 unknown ships. The decimation of 45 ships by those unknown parties using strange ship board weapons which then ended with the escape of one mercenary ship.

Jones was shocked to see this. He couldn't figure out anything about those unknown ships. But from the earlier reports, he could see those ships use the portals just as what the spartan's ship used who came to this galaxy a month ago. But he felt his mind sundered after watching this.

"Illusive man needs to know this!" thought Jones.

Then he setup the portable QEC and created a channel to the Illusive man. After sometime, the Illusive man appeared in the video screen, live smoking a cigar.

"Jones! I assume you've called me for an important matter" asked the Illusive man.

"Yes sir! I have a potential intel in the form of a video footage" replied Jones.

"What is it?" asked Illusive man now curious.

"It's something related to those spartans and the UNSC" replied Jones. The Illusive man gave a curious and confused look. He then took a sip of his expensive wine thinking for quite sometime about what to say.

"Alright Jones, Send me the package. I'll take it from here" said the Illusive man.

"Yes Sir!" said Jones and then he uploaded the video package from his omni-tool through the QEC. In a few seconds, Illusive man's terminal beeped. He then took a look at that.

"I received the package, Jones. And i think it's not safe for you to stay there any longer. Pack your things and leave omega" said the Illusive man.

"Will do sir" said Jones and closed the terminal. As his job was over, he then prepared to leave the place leaving no trace of his presence.

 **...**

 **Aboard the UNSC Infinity, Terminus borders**

Captain Lasky was in his cabin scrolling over his data pad reading the codex. He was truly astonished with the facts.

"Jesus! Is that even possible? Shit! What have we got ourselves into?" thought Lasky. He continued reading the codex when suddenly Roland, infinity's AI popped up.

"Captain, you need to come to the bridge. This is getting interesting" said Roland.

"Roland, I'm not interested in your suspense thrillers" said Lasky with a jest.

"Well, I can clearly see that you are in the mood for jest. But Sir! This is important" said Roland with a serious face.

"Alright, I'm coming" said Lasky prepared to leave the place.

"Palmer, Carter, Jorge, Halsey are already there" said Roland. Lasky paused for a moment and turned to face Roland in confusion.

"Everyone?" asked Lasky

"Yes Sir! it's an emergency. Lasky was silent for a moment and then left his cabin.

He took the elevator to the CIC deck and then from there he reached the bridge.

"Captain on deck!" yelled Carter and everyone snapped a salute.

"At ease. So what's this about?" asked Lasky. He then noticed Arbiter's hologram.

"Arbiter! you decided to join us?" asked Lasky.

"No captain. But your construct insisted" replied Arbiter. Then everyone looked at roland for an explanation.

"Actually 10 minutes ago, I picked up gravitational echos 500 kms east of our fleet's poition. it's a -..."

"A Whisper! My goodness! It's impossible!" said Halsey in shock.

"What's impossible? what's this whisper?" asked palmer.

"A whisper is a preceding echo that's released in the space"

"And what it precedes?" asked Carter.

"A Slipspace rupture" answered Roland. Everyone were shocked to here this. A slipspace rupture in this universe will be the last ting they would expect.

"A slipspace rupture? That can't be right. We are in a different universe and everyone in this galaxy seems to use this 'Mass effect' technology for FTL as what is given in the codex" said Lasky.

"But whisper is an effect associated with slipspace" said Roland.

"So construct, Are you saying that the whispers are due to the fact that someone is about to exit the slipspace? Here? Can you set the countdown timer for exit?" asked Arbiter who is surprised with the fact.

"Sure. I've calculated the signal approach strength. Iniating countdown timer" said Roland and a hologram displayed a timer and it started from 2 minutes.

"2 minutes...Wait! could it be them?" asked Jorge

"Who Jorge?" asked Carter.

"Come on! It must be the blue team. So they are here!" said Jorge who's equally surprised. Others were stunned with what Jorge asked. But they also thought of that possibility. If this is indeed another universe, then anyone using slipspace must be their own.

"If it's them, then we all have one hell of a welcome party waiting for them!" said Lasky who was enthusiastic.

"Then we all get ourselves back home" replied palmer. Then suddenly an officer spoke up.

"Sir! Slipspace rupture detected!" yelled the officer.

"Roland!?" called on Lasky with seriousness.

"Bringing up the scans" said Roland and brought a live holographic footage at the exact position.

The next thing everyone in the bridge saw made them to be flabbergasted. They were shocked to see a strange deep blue black colored ship exiting the slipspace.

"My god! Whose ship is that? The profile doesn't match any UNSC or covenant vessels!" said Dr. Halsey.

"Captain? That ship, our ship's sensor read it 5kms long and picking up a massive energy signatures in the ship" said Arbiter. Arbiter's ship sensors picked up the approaching vessel and had scanned it throughly.

"Captain! Incoming transmission, UNSC encryption" said a comm officer.

"UNSC? Put it on!" said Lasky. Everyone were eager to listen to the transmission. After a couple of seconds, they heard a voice.

" _This is Masterchief Petty Officer Sierra-117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn to the Infinity, Do you read me? over"_ The transmission ended.

Everyone cheered loud in the bridge after they heard the voice of the legendary spartan of the UNSC.

"YEAH!" was the roaring voice in the bridge.

 **...**

 **A few minutes ago...**

"Cortana, What's our ETA?" asked Chief.

"Its 2 minutes chief" replied cortana.

"Man! I just can't believe we are finally going to meet the UNSC" said Fred.

"Well, It looks like we are one step closer" said Linda.

"The true work is only about to begin. We need to stop the reapers and above all, we need to learn about that portal and who sent the signal from this place" said Kelly.

"Kelly's right. Something tells me both the missions have some sort of connection" replied Chief.

"Guyz, Exiting slipspace in 5, 4 ,3 ,2, 1..." Cortana finished the countdown.

The Imperial Dawn exited the slipspace and saw a planet. But the next thing they saw to the left side of the planet was an astonishment.

"We did it! It's our reinforcements" said Cortana with happiness. Then she brought the holographic image of the UNSC and Covenant ships in front of chief. They were surprised to see Arbiter's fleet here.

"Wait! What's arbiter's fleet doing here?" asked Chief. Chief knew that after the covenant war, Arbiter had a job of hunting down the mercenary groups and covenant supremists and take back the whole sanghelios. Arbiter's presence here puzzled him.

"Well, we'll know when we talk to them" replied Linda.

"Cortana, get us closer" said Chief. Cortana brought the ship closer to the UNSC and Covenant fleet. Then he opened the comm channel

"This is Masterchief Petty Officer Sierra-117 of the UNSC Imperial Dawn to the Infinity, Do you read me, over..." There was radio silence for a few seconds. Chief and his friends shared a look.

"This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the UNSC Infinity. It's good to here from you Chief" came a voice.

"It is good to see you spartan" said Arbiter from another channel.

"My pleasure Arbiter"

"Captain, Permission to enter Infinity's hanger bay" said chief.

"Permission granted. See you at the hanger. Lasky out" said Lasky and the channel was cut.

"Good. Cortana, take care of the ship. Team, let us teleport into their ship's hanger" said Chief to which others nodded.

"Is the distance safe, cortana?" asked chief

"Don't worry. It'll be fine" said cortana.

Then the blue team used the gravity lift to reach the civilian deck where the space is so big. Then after standing side by side, chief gave the order to teleport them.

...

 **Meanwhile in the Infinity hanger...**

Captain Lasky after giving permission to chief to enter the hanger, He along with Halsey, Palmer, Carter, Jorge went to the hanger to welcome the spartan and his team for whom they had waited a long time.

Everyone reached the hanger. The hanger bay door was kept open to allow chief's transport while maintaining the artificial gravity and energy field to hold the atmosphere. Everyone were eagerly waiting for the chief to come.

They were waiting but they see no sign of approach of chief's transport. But suddenly, the space nearby them glowed with golden light looked as if spinning so fast. Everyone started to tense after what they saw. After the lights dropped off, four massive figures came out, but familiar ones. 3 were wearing the known UNSC MJOLNIR Mark VI. But the one in the front standing 7'3" was wearing an armor of unknown design. It had the outline of MJOLNIR Mark VI. but the color was black, Texture was better and had a fluidic armor design for smooth aerodynamic flows. The armor looked unlike anything they had seen before. Also she and everyone else were surprised to see their entry. They thought they would come in a pelican, but this was unexpected. Everyone clapped their hands to chief and his team's arrival in enthusiasm.

Lasky was staring at them in surprise. Halsey was happy to see her children back but also confused with chief's appearance. Even she had never seen anything like this before. Palmer was looking at the spartan IIs in admiration. Carter was pleased to see the chief and his team back. Jorge was gald to see his spartan brothers and sisters back.

The 4 spartans, the blue team walked up front and came near Lasky. Then the 4 saluted at captain and Lasky returned the salute back.

"After been through hell for a long time, It's finally good to see you and your team chief" said Lasky with a smile.

"Likewise sir" chief shaked hands with Lasky.

"By the way, What was that!? I thought you were gonna come in a pelican, but this is..."Lasky said in astonishment.

"That's teleportation" replied Fred.

"John, Fred, Kelly, Linda! I am happy to see you all!" said Dr. Halsey with both sadness and happiness.

"It's nice to see you doctor" said Linda. For a moment, The spartans felt happy to see her mother figure.

"By the way john!, that was a dashing entrance. And this armor, Where did you get this?" asked Halsey astonished with chief battle armor. She identified the Mark VI outline, but the armor as a whole was totally something else. The design didn't have a human touch. But chief kept silent and didn't answer to that.

"Yeah. And that ship of yours? It's even more strange! Where did you get this and why are we here?" asked Lasky pouring out the questions.

"Wait, Is cortana with you?" asked Halsey. This grabbed everyone's attention.

"Yes and she's in the ship. But i can show you" said chief and opened his palm. he than called out cortana and she appeared in chief's palm. Everyone were stunned to see her. She was wearing some sort of formal clothes. Even halsey was shocked to see a different cortana.

"Hello doctor Halsey" greeted Cortana.

"Greetings cortana! You look...different!" said Halsey in confusion.

"I am cured of my rampancy. But that's a story for another time" said cortana.

"She's right. Sir, We need to get off this place. It's not safe here" said chief with cortana vanishing from chief's palm.

"But chief, What is this place we've got into?" asked Laksy.

"We'll explain everything from the scratch. But you all need to get to these coordinates immediately" said chief opening his left forearm mini holo-computer and tapped some keys and sent coordinates to their base's location.

"That's the slipspace coordinates to our safe location. Let's go there and we'll tell you everything. Every minute we stand here is a problem for us" said chief. Lasky wanted answers, but chief was right. First they need to get to a safer location.

"Alright chief. Then we'll meet there" said Lasky. Chief and his team saluted the captain and they teleported to the dawn.

Lasky looked at everyone for a moment. But this time with confidence and hope as he finally met the chief and his team. So he felt things are gonna be alright.

"Roland? Get us to these coordinates, ASAP!" ordered Lasky.

"Yes sir!" said Roland. He received the coordinates from Lasky's personal data pad. He also gave the coordinates to Arbiter's fleet to follow them. Then the UNSC eight fleet, Arbiter's fleet of retribution jumped into slipspace to those coordinates and vanished from that system.

 **...**

 **Somewhere in the inter-galactic dark space...**

In the unknown depths of the dark space, There lies a large artificial structure, 6 times the size of a UNSC orbital defence platform. The space station is dark and life less. But suddenly, the lights start to glitter all over the structure one by one. Distant mechanical humming sounds can be heard. Then a voice...

"Hm Hm Hm..." came a very deep rough growl voice possibly from an organic being in the station.

Then, a loud screaming roar that lasts for 2 seconds...

 **...**

 **A/N: Don't get confused with the timeline in this chapter. It is exactly what i have mentioned. As for the mass effect content, everything will be bland for now. In depth exploration will be given only from mass effect 3 part.**

 **And with the reconciliation of the blue team and the UNSC and Arbiter, the threats arise.**

 **As for Spirit of fire and Everest, I will give a thought to that.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass effect or Halo franchise.**

 **Chapter 14: Debriefing part I**

 **Cerberus headquarters...**

The Illusive man was watching the footage sent by his agent in omega station. He watched everything from the scratch. The arrival of 15 strange ships through a bluish white portal, with 3 ships looking so big. The ships with sharp bends was the largest. The footage even managed to get a closer look at the side hull of that largest ship. It read 'U.N.S.C Infinity' with an eagle insignia. Illusive man was quite startled. He could see 8 similar ships but smaller ones belonging to UNSC. But what really got his attention was the 6 strange ships out of which 2 where almost big as the Infinity and the other 4 smaller. Those ships didn't match these UNSC fleet. Those ships have a curvy design. He assumed it to be another faction.

"UNSC? The same faction those spartans belong to"

"But...Who does these new ships belong to? It's evident they aren't UNSC" thought the Illusive man.

Then the next footage even stunned him. They were attacked by the 46 eclipse and blood pack ships. But to his surprise, the shields held a lot more than that. Then those UNSC ships fired their version of mass accelerator weapons that tore the ships apart. Also the other 6 ships fired bright energy projectiles that melted the merc ships one behind the other completely ignoring the kinetic barriers. He identified it to be some sort of plasma based weaponry.

He found both the MAC and Plasma weapons intriguing. But was wondering how they actually got here. A month ago, it was only the spartans and their one ship which they claimed to have entered this domain through an anomaly.

"Do these people come from the same place the spartans were?" thought Illusive man in confusion.

He felt it strange. He was pondering whether they got here by the same accident or did their place had anything special to travel between universes. While the species of this galaxy had been staying in the same place for millions of years, It was truly magnificent. But something was tinkling in his mind as he started to doubt their presence.

"Their presence can't be coincidental. Spartans with their one ship? It's fine, but 2 fleet from the same place just 1 month after the spartan's arrival? It can't be right. What's really happening?" thought the Illusive man.

But either way, he found their technology impressive, especially their ship size and weaponry.

"These weapons itself will need a separate power plant to keep them running. If I can get my hands on any one of the ship, It could be decommissioned for study and reproduce the technology"

He then finally witnessed the destruction of 45 ships in less than 5 minutes with one ship escaping the onslaught.

"This is an opportunity for Cerberus to show it's true power and represent humanity, a dominant force in the galaxy"

"But no matter how many resources I have, When it comes to facing threats like, I have to wait for the right time. I have to monitor their movements" said the Illusive man who was watching the footage, taking a sip of wine and a smoke.

"But I also need to find how they travel between universes, If there's a way to do the same from here" he thought. Then he switched off the terminal and seated himself in his chair.

 **...**

 **Titan nebula, near the spartan's planet base...**

16 slipspace ruptures occurred side by side nearby the planet and 16 UNSC-Seperatists fleet exited slipspace. The Imperial dawn led the fleet in front.

"Cortana, report" said Chief.

"Excluding us, I'm reading 15 ships intact" replied Cortana.

"Good, what about docking?" asked Fred

"Dawn, Infinity and Shadow of Intent can get the ships to the docking structure. Others should maintain their position above the planet" said Cortana.

"Fine, get me a line to the captain and Arbiter" said Chief.

"Here you go" said cortana bringing up the link.

...

Aboard the Infinity, everyone including the captain got to see the planet they were. To be honest, they were attracted by it's atmosphere. It was clean and pure.

"And I thought, only we had such beautiful planets" thought Lasky. Then called Roland to brief on the situation.

"Roland, how's our fleet?" asked Lasky

"Fine, I'm reading 9 UNSC ships and 6 Separatists ships intact"

"Good, What about our engines and thrusters?"

"They are fine, but the FTL drive has heated up so we gotta wait for sometime before being used another time"

"Captain, Chief is online"

"Bring him up" replied Lasky. Then chief and Arbiter's hologram appeared.

"Captain, Arbiter" Chief gave the salutations.

"Spartan, Is there any reason you have brought us near this planet?" asked Arbiter.

"Yes. Captain, Arbiter, This is the terrain mapping of the base we established recently" said Chief bringing up hologram of the entire 400 mile region with every available feature. Lasky and Arbiter were stunned with the exotic view of the base. They could clearly see the architectures present there. The gondolas, defense cannons similar to what they saw in Requiem, the personnel quarters and finally the docking structure to land ships and place to keep the warthogs and scorpions.

"Chief, where did you even get resources to build something like this?" asked Lasky who was awestruck.

"After the halo installations, this is the second place I have seen something similar" said Arbiter.

"Actually, 3 ships can be docked in those docking structures. It would be our ship, Infinity and Your's Arbiter. Others should hold their position above the base in the space. I'm sorry, but we don't have enough room" said Chief.

"What about the troops and supplies?" asked Lasky. This time cortana answered.

"Well sir, You can bring everything down here. Vehicles, personnel and weapon supplies from the ships" replied Cortana pointing out the place to park all the military vehicles and to store supplies. The she pointed out the personnel quarters. Lasky and Arbiter were impressed.

"Heh, It looks like you people have sorted everything out" chuckled Lasky.

"That's true. But we need to act fast. First let us settle ourselves down there and then we'll hold a council" said Chief.

"Alright chief. I'll see you down" said Lasky and cut the channel. And aboard the Infinity, Lasky started giving further orders.

"Roland, open a fleet wide channel" said Lasky.

"Yes sir...Channel's ready" said Roland.

"Fleet, This is Captain Lasky of the Infinity. Infinity and Shadow of Intent will land on the planet at the specified base while other ships are supposed maintain their position in the space above the base. But the crew and captains of the ship are allowed to come down and even bring your armaments and vehicles. But the personnel to maintain the ship's weapons, comms and engines should stay in the ship until further orders are given" ordered Lasky.

"Acknowledged Captain Lasky!" came a voice in unison. Then Lasky cut the line and prepared to enter the base.

"Roland, I need you to dock the ship in the place where chief pointed out" said Lasky. I am preparing to leave to the surface" said Lasky.

"Aye aye captain" said Roland. Lasky immediately contacted Palmer.

"Sarah, I need you, Carter, Jorge and Dr. Halsey to meet me at the hanger bay 06"

"On our way" replied Palmer and the comm was cut. Then Lasky made his way to the hanger bay 06 for departure. Lasky then took the tram system to reach the Civilian deck and from there with a few left and right, he reached the hanger bay 06. Everyone in the hanger after seeing their superior officer,

"Officer on deck!" yelled one of the marine. Everyone took the stance of attention.

"At ease, Roland, where are the others?" asked Lasky.

"We are here captain" came a voice from behind. Lasky turned to see along with Carter, Palmer, Jorge.

"So captain? what's with this new planet?" asked Carter.

"This is where blue team had made their base. This is where we'll dock our ship with shadow of intent" said Lasky.

"Dock? here?" asked Jorge in confusion. Lasky just gave a smirk and then turned to Roland.

"Roland, open the blast door and keep the atmospheric field intact" said Lasky.

"Yes sir, Bay door opening in 3, 2, 1..." said Roland and the door started to open.

After opened, everyone got a clear view of the planet and the ships had already entered the planet's atmosphere. Everyone in the hanger stared at the open view and their eyes widened in astonishment. The warm sunlight shone inside the hanger.

"My my! It's beautiful!" exclaimed Halsey "John, sure picked an alluring spot"

"Our boys and girls are gonna love this" said Palmer with a smile.

"Sure they will, but we need know what's really going on and what the blue team was after. We make sure if our hunch was right" said Lasky, his face slightly turning serious.

"Captain, the dawn has been docked. It's time for us" said Roland.

"Good. Get us down" said Lasky.

The Infinity and Shadow of Intent started to descend towards the docking tower. There were three towers in total. It was purely coincidental that three biggest ships got the opportunity to dock here. The docking towers had a magnetic clamp and a constraint field generator. In this way it would be easy for the big ships to dock easily without any shakedown or hiccups.

...

Aboard the shadow of Intent, Arbiter and shipmaster R'tas were watching the spartan's base in awe. They were wondering what made the spartans to build a base as fortified as this one.

"The spartans had everything ready" said R'tas who was surprised.

"The base is big enough for everyone. It is as if they were waiting for us. Did they planned this already?" asked Arbiter in surprise.

"May be. But Arbiter, Shouldn't we tell our allies what we found near our home?" asked R'tas now his turning somewhat serious. Both started to talk something cryptically.

"R'tas, amidst the confusion, we don't want to add fuel to the flames just as the humans say. We'll tell if the circumstances call for it" replied Arbiter. They both shared a look of concern for a moment.

"By your words, Arbiter" said R'tas keeping his fist over his chest in respect.

"We are in a war with the loyalists and the storm faction, yet our discovery is the reason we still came here to aid our allies. This is even more important than our war. One that will shape our future" said Arbiter.

"Understood Arbiter" replied R'tas. Arbiter though came along to help his UNSC friends, something was troubling him. He's got something in his mind that he couldn't let it out or keep it off his mind. But his instincts told him to carry on and he simply does that.

"Helm, are we ready to dock?" asked R'tas.

"Yes, fleet master. The ship's yaw has been adjusted to sit right" replied an elite.

"Good, Then bring us down" said R'tas. The helm brought the Shadow of Intent towards the docking tower 3.

The Dawn, Infinity and Shadow of Intent has been docked in the towers 01, 02 and 03 receptively.

...

SSgt. Marcus, leader of the ODST team 'Ghost' aboard Infinity was pretty much excited to see the new base. He was watching the base in awe from the hanger bay 06 after Infinity was docked. The 400 mile base was visible for him. He whistled in astonishment.

SSgt. Marcus is a veteran ODST soldier in service and the leader of the 'Ghost' team who had been fighting the Human-covenant war in the early days. Ghost team was formed by July 16, 2535. Unlike other ODST teams, Ghost team always receives top of the line equipment instead of standards.

They have participated in numerous campaigns against the covenants. The most notable mission was to blow up the city of New Rodney in Beta hydri-VI after being invaded by covenant on November 3, 2551. When the covenant fleet consisting of multiple CAS Assault carriers, CCS cruisers and corvettes, There were 4 UNSC task force under a battle group named 'Omega'. The omega battle group consisted of 5 Marathon cruisers 6 Autumn cruisers, 20 strident frigates and 4 Phoenix colony ships still being outnumbered by 3:1. The Covenant forces were successful in landing a big platoon over the city of New Rodney. But in fact the covenant were about to invade an underground research facility for unknown reasons. Ghost team made an atmospheric jump with the SOEIV. The team infiltrated the then fallen city. The team pushed through but learned that the civilians in the cities were dead already. Also intel suggested that the research base was compromised. The research was top secret classified information. But due the situation, cole protocol was initiated to prevent covenant from gaining the intel, They used a shiva nuclear warhead to manually detonate through a proximity fusing and blow the whole city. The City was swarming with elites, hunters, brutes, jackals, grunts. One of Marcus's team mates got fatally wounded in a gun fight after being shot in his abdomen by an elite plasma. He asked his team to leave while he blow up the city. The covenant didn't know of this trap and rather they were wondering why only 5 humans were sent to clear a city. The wounded ODST soldier lighted the fuse while others got to a safe distance in an pelican at the extraction point. Then the whole city was brought to ruins killing all the covenant forces along with the research base. In the naval warfare, UNSC lost 2 Autumn cruisers and a marathon cruiser with 3 strident frigates. The destruction of the city was a distraction so UNSC used this opportunity to lure the covenant fleet to the New Constantinople battle group through slipspace where the combined UNSC fleet decimated the covenant task force.

This was their last mission alone and then they took part in important campaigns from operation first strike to the battle of Ark during which they also had a good working rapport with the Master chief. Because of this, the team has greater reputation among both the ODST and the whole UNSC. SSgt. Marcus is someone chief considered as close as Avery Johnson himself.

Though the nature of the research intel on Rodney was unknown till this date. Everyone believed the file was closed by ONI section one.

"Hey sarge, ever thought we would see something big like this?" asked corporal Blake, member of the ghost team.

"Hm, If we had something like this in the days of war, we would have had the mule heads run for their money" said SSgt. Marcus with a chuckle.

"Do you know what this is all about, sarge? I mean, how did the chief got a base like this and why?" asked Pfc. Simon.

"Chief would definitely have a mind blowing explanation to all of this. Why don't we just ask him when we get down there?" said Marcus .

Ghost team currently comprises of SSgt. Marcus, Cpl. Blake, Pfc. Simon, Pvt. Rourke and Pvt Abbas.

...

Once the three ships were docked, Lasky called up Roland.

"Roland, I need all combat personnel on the ground from here. Prepare to deploy the ground vehicles" said Lasky.

"Aye aye sir!" replied Roland

"Sarah, Carter, prep your spartan fire teams and meet me at the ground side" Said Lasky. They saluted him and went away.

"Dr. Halsey, you are coming with me too. We'll board a pelican"

"I will, I need to see this through" replied Halsey.

"Sir, Me and team will escort you both" said .

"Very well, Marcus. We'll go together" said Lasky.

Then Lasky opened a fleet wide channel to the superior officers of the other ships.

"Attention all High ranking officers of the UNSC fleet, I'll on the on the ground side for debriefing with the spartan blue team. You will be staying in the ships above the base taking a defensive position" said Lasky. A word of acknowledgement came into his speakers.

Then Lasky, Halsey and Ghost team went to board a pelican that was ready to get to the ground side. The pelicans, M820 scorpions, M12R warthogs and YGGDRASIL Mark IX Mantis were prepping to get of the ship carrying personnel and other inventories.

...

Aboard the Shadow of Intent and other separatists sips, the Sanghelli and Mgalekgolo were getting ready to get down with the phantom dropships, banshees, Anti-air and mortar wraiths, T-46 spectres.

"Arbiter, Our people are ready to be deployed on the ground" said a now sanghelli ultra Usze Taham.

"Very well Taham. You and N'tho take care of the elite guards and hunters in getting to the ground with all the ground side vehicles. Myself and R'tas will go there to attend the UNSC council" said Arbiter.

"By your words, Arbiter" said Usze keeping his fist over his chest in respect. He then went to do his job.

"R'tas, Let us take a phantom to the ground" said Arbiter.

"Sure, I am ready whenever you are" said R'tas. Arbiter nodded and both went to board the phantom.

...

Just after 3 hours, several separatists and UNSC dropships were seen flying above the base, carrying military supplies and vehicles along with thousands of UNSC combat personnel, Covenant Elite guards and hunters. The people started to spread all over the base. Pelicans and Phantoms were dropping the ground vehicles as well as the combat units who then started to spread the supplies using those vehicles. All the military logistics are dealt on the left cliff where as the right cliff is for personnel settlement and to plan missions in the underground CIC.

In 9 hours, the base was almost stabilized with all military vehicles being spread and kept in order along the left cliff which will be maintained by the inventories and logistics officers with the help of sentinels that had been in this base right from the first. Now was the time for combat personnels to settle in their camps on the right cliff. It was already evening 05:00 pm and the sun was already slowly setting down.

Fireteam Majestic and Crimson were already in the ground looking at the base with their eyes widened.

"I don't even know why we are here, but i've fallen in love with this place" said Madsen.

"Well, only if you expect one big ass whoopin incident to happen" replied Hoya.

"Hm, This is the first time I'm seeing the blue team face to face" said Madsen.

"Do we even know where we are?" asked Thorne.

"Not sure, If chief and his team are here, then there's definitely something big goin on" said Demarco.

"Are we even allowed for the briefing?" asked Grant

"Nah, I don't think so. This must be some top secret mission" replied Hoya.

Chief and his team came down in a pelican to the left cliff followed by a phantom that carried Arbiter and R'tas and another pelican that carried Captain Lasky, ODST ghost team and Dr. Halsey.

Spartan Palmer, Carter and Jorge saw them touching the Aircraft station. They went near the dropships as it touched the ground with the thrusters blowing the dust off the ground. Then they watched everyone coming out of the drop ships, The blue team, Arbiter and R'tas, Lasky, Halsey and ghost team.

Palmer, Carter and Jorge saluted the captain and Lasky returned the salute. Then Lasky talked.

"So this is the base, huh?" asked Lasky with a smile.

"Yes sir. It's big enough for everyone" replied Chief.

"This's one hell of a place you've made even if it's not clearly why" said . Chief was surprised to see the ODST ghost team here. It was a long time since both saw each other during the battle of Ark.

"Marcus? I never knew you were in Infinity!" said Chief quite surprised.

"Well, my team got transferred to Infinity 3 years back"

"Still good to see you and your team here and intact" said Chief.

"Likewise Chief" replied Marcus

"I think there is no reason to wait, spartan. We can have everyone settled down and hold our council" said Arbiter his face serious.

"You are right, Arbiter" replied Chief and then he turned to Captain, "Sir, Let's get to the other side of the cliff. That's the place where soldiers will be staying in the camp" said Chief.

"Then, we can move. Palmer, Carter, Jorge, You will come with us" said Lasky. They nodded in acknowledgement. Blue team finally decided to greet Jorge, their fellow spartan as they didn't get time to talk to him. Lasky was walking up front with Palmer and Carter, Arbiter and R'tas. Blue team joined with Jorge.

"It's been a long time Jorge" said Kelly with a smile under her helmet. Jorge had his helmet removed already.

"It is Kelly. Well, It takes time to recover from your nightmares" said Jorge keeping his face not too happy.

"Still couldn't get off from those wars?" asked Fred

"No, I already got out off that a long time ago. Now everything feels different. Carter had me re-instated at Infinity"

"Have you been to reach after the war?" asked Chief.

"Yes and I felt relieved to see it back in shape" replied Jorge.

"Actually we all should have a separate conversation once this meeting is over" said Linda.

"We will for sure, Linda" replied Jorge. Then Chief talked to Cortana.

"Cortana, these people are gonna need a ride in the gondola to get to the other side. Do you have full control with the base's transport systems?" asked Chief.

"I do chief. I can set the gondolas for a routine pickup" said Cortana.

Everyone came towards the soldiers who were waiting to receive further orders. After seeing the captain, everyone became silent to listen to him. Chief whispered something to Lasky before he began to talk to which he nodded.

"Attention all personnel! You will be getting to your camps on the other side through the anti-gravity gondolas. Fire team Majestic will help you escort to your camps. We'll have our discussions once our council is over" ordered Lasky. Everyone acknowledged in unison. Then Majestic escorted the marines to the gondolas.

"And you four, help majestic and stay here while I go for the briefing" said Marcus to his team mates.

"Yes Sir!" said the four loud and clear, saluted him and went to help majestic.

Lasky and others reached the first gondola. Chief pressed a button in the holo-console and the gondola started to hover and move straight to the opposite platform. Everyone could feel the gondola's slight inertia caused by anti-gravity movement.

"Hm, Surely this gondola must be some forerunner replication" said Palmer with a chuckle.

"It is. It was good back then on installation 05. I quite enjoyed the ride along with the chief" replied Marcus with a smile looking at the chief.

"You were with the chief back then?" asked Carter in surprise. Some of them became curious to listen to the sergeant. Even cortana was interested in the conversation as it heavily involved her. Arbiter was even more interested in talking about that coz he was the only other person who was on the delta halo on that very day.

"My team assisted chief on the halo-05 during our first feet on ground" said Marcus.

"We were ordered to find and assassinate a san shyuum named..." Chief explained only to be interrupted by the Arbiter.

"Prophet of Regret" said Arbiter which got everyone's attention. Some were looking at him in mild surprise.

"So, what's your story?" asked Palmer.

"News of that prophet's death reached us. Back then I was serving them and I was tasked to retrieve the Icon, the activation index from the halo's library" said Arbiter.

After hearing this, some of their face's expression changed from a smile to seriousness. Indeed, everyone knows Arbiter's past and that he was solely responsible for several human deaths. But still, when he got out of the illusion, He hated the whole covenant with passion and vowed to exterminate everyone those who wronged his race.

"I've heard the early reports, I was sent by ONI to halo-03 for field work but never knew much about halo-05" asked Halsey who was listening to their conversation so far.

"After I retrieved the Icon, Prophets ordered the brutes to eliminate our race when we withdrew ourselves from the covenant" said Arbiter.

"And that was when the first covenant civil war took place" said Kelly who too was listening to the conversation. John-117 was the only spartan present during the halo-05 fight as other blue team members were on another mission, but everyone knew most of the story.

"So the prophets ordered the brutes to activate halo" said Arbiter.

"And it was that same moment myself and the chief met, though our meeting itself was in the unexpected place with an unexpected...*SIGH*...That was a nightmare" said Arbiter, his face frowned. Chief and Cortana knew what it was. It was then the three met the worst nightmare the galaxy could ever have.

"Well, looks like the story didn't have a happy ending" said Lasky. Chief sighed for a moment. Cortana then spoke through chief's speakers.

"For those who didn't know the entire story, I'll tell you another time. Now we got something else to focus on" said Cortana.

"Wait, You said the brutes were ordered to activate halo. But doesn't it require a human to do that?" asked Palmer.

"Indeed, The brutes captured our commander Miranda Keyes, Dr Halsey's daughter and Avery Johnson to force their hands" said Marcus. For a moment everyone looked at Halsey after her daughter's name was brought in. Her face was like she never wanted to remind herself of those unfortunate incidents.

"I was by the time busy stopping the prophet of truth from reaching earth" said Chief.

"That left me and my elites. We arrived at the right time to stop the brutes and together with Keyes and Johnson, we stopped the firing of halo" finished Arbiter.

That was quite a wrap up for some of them. Those events took place 5 years ago but still not everything is known about the wars fought on halos and the ark. Even the portal of Voi in Africa was covered post war and public access was restricted. When Infinity was deployed on installation 05 and 03 for decommission and study in the 5 years, there were no known evidences of the wars found on halo-05.

"Infinity found no evidences on halo-05 during the study. It was as if the whole place was cleaned" said Lasky.

"ONI works best in concealing the information just like they kept much from me" said Halsey with slight frustration.

"But, we'll have this exchange of historical facts later and get to the matter at hand" said Halsey now turning to chief.

"John, You and your team are supposed to give explanations about our current situation"

"Halsey is right. Chief, I need full details in the debriefing" said Lasky.

"Yes sir" said Chief.

"Here we are" said Cortana through the chief's helmet. The gondola reached the platform of the right cliff. Then it attached itself to the platform. Everyone came out to see the other half of the base. It was highly spacious and had camps to the left and right side for the marines and spartans to stay. In the middle is a big pathway for people to walk. The blue team had separate quarters and near by that would be Lasky, Palmer, Carter, Arbiter, R'tas and Halsey's place. The blue team have separate plans for Jorge.

As for the elites and hunters, They will be staying separately though their camps are similar to human camps. The reason being, Chief and his team didn't expect the separatists to be here.

"The place is spacious for everyone" said Jorge

"But, I am sorry Arbiter, We never expected you and your people coming here. So your people have to stay only in these human camps while you and R'tas can stay in the quarters we have for us" said Linda.

"No problem. My people were more used to dangers than comfort" replied Arbiter.

This place was already filled with supplies in the camps and ground side vehicles from the infinity and shadow of intent. Fire team majestic was doing a good job in escorting the marines, elites and hunters to the right cliff to their camps in the gondolas.

"Captain, We'll hold the council in an underground CIC 150kms from here" said Fred. There was a moment of silence with everyone's face in awe.

"That much? And you don't expect me to walk that distance, do you?" said Halsey. Chief let out a smirk, but Arbiter spoke before that.

"We'll board a troop carrier and get there soon" said R'tas who then used his communicator to call a phantom. In about 5 minutes, a type 52 phantom troop carrier came towards their position and slowly touched down before them.

"Let's get this over with" muttered Marcus. Everyone got on board the phantom and the door was closed. Usually gravity lift is used only during a fight for troop deployment otherwise, the blast door is generally used. Then the phantom went away from that place. Chief pointed out the directions. After they left, the marines, elites and hunters started to fill up the camps.

"Huh, How do you guyz even move between 400 miles?" asked Jorge.

"We teleport around the base" replied Kelly shrugging her shoulder.

"Hm, how comfortable!" muttered Jorge.

was stunned to hear that. She can already see the blue team's armors being severely upgraded, especially chief's armor was totally different. She decided to talk everything about this once the briefing was done.

In 10 minutes, they crossed 150 kms and reached the CIC. Everyone got out of the phantom to see a big door in front with a holo terminal to the left on a panel board. They also saw sentinels moving around the place.

Kelly then used the holo terminal to open the door. They all saw an elevator platform. Then everyone entered the elevator. Then she pressed the hologram and the door closed. Then everyone went down the elevator. After 10 seconds, the platform slowed down and finally reached the CIC door. The elevator stopped and the door opened. Everyone walked in. After crossing a small staircase, the entered a big room with nothing but a large table and chairs. But there was also a hologram emitter unbeknownst to them.

Chief inserted Cortana in a pedestal and Cortana was tapped into every electronics in the CIC. Sarah Palmer whistled in excitement.

"So, this...is our CIC?" mocked Palmer raising her eyebrow.

"Appearances are deceptive, commander" said Cortana, projecting herself. Everyone turned to look at her. She then switched ON the lightings just enough for the room to be visible.

"Why dont you all take your seats" said Cortana. Everyone sat around the table in the following order. Chief, Fred, Kelly, Linda, Lasky, Palmer, Carter, Jorge, Halsey, Arbiter, R'tas and finally Marcus. Everyone got settled and comfortable.

"So Cortana, why don't you start over from the very beginning?" said Lasky.

"Before I tell you, Why it took you one month to get here?" asked Cortana. Others were surprised with the question.

"What are you talking about? The moment the UNSC HIGHCOM received your message, in an hour, Lord Hood managed to get me a fleet and Arbiter's assistance and we used the same portal you used to get here" said Lasky confused.

"We had been waiting a month for your arrival, but you say that you followed us just an hour after we went through the portal?" asked Kelly. Halsey's face cleared up as she understood what the situation meant.

"Relativistic side effects are common with black holes. What had been a month for you was only a matter of minutes for us" explained Halsey. Clarity filled in everyone's faces as they understood the situation. They felt good to have an expert with them.

"But let us not deviate from the subject. Cortana, tell us everything" said Halsey. Others nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen" said Cortana who brought up this universe's milky way hologram display above the table. Everyone stared at the hologram eagerly.

"This is the milky way galaxy we all know. But, It's nothing like what we inhabit" said Cortana highlighting the star systems with their names displayed nearby.

"We even managed dig some data on our own regarding this universe's milky way galaxy during some unfortunate...encounters" said Carter. What Carter said stunned the blue team and Cortana.

"This universe? So you know that we are in a different universe?" asked Fred in surprise and confusion.

"That was only a hunch as what you humans say, spartan. But seeing the way you were surprised, It looks like we were right in that regard" replied Arbiter. Blue team and Cortana couldn't believe they already knew those information. Chief who was confused spoke immediately.

"How do you know this?" asked Chief.

"After we entered the galaxy, our fleet and Arbiter's fleet engaged an unknown enemy fleet of 46 ships. They asked us to surrender and we refused. So we fought and destroyed the enemy ships" said Palmer.

"Enemy ships? Who did you fight?" asked Cortana tensed.

"They called themselves Eclipse and Blood pack. Sounded more like cut throats" said Lasky.

"Shit!" said Linda quite loud. Blue team and Cortana had studied everything about this galaxy in the one month time. They know everyone and everything about this galaxy from which they need to stay alert at all times.

"What?" asked Lasky.

"That eclipse and blood pack you mentioned are mercenaries and cut-throats this galaxy had ever seen. So you did piss them off" said Linda.

"But how did you know that you were in a different universe with these encounters?" asked Chief.

"Roland, Infinity's AI managed to disable a ship through cyber-warfare. From that ship's computer, he managed to download all the data from an archive called 'Codex' regarding this galaxy which was more than convincing enough to prove that things aren't normal" said Lasky.

Blue team and Cortana were surprised to know that their allies had already learnt much before meeting them. This made Cortana to feel relieved as she didn't have to waste time in lengthy explanation.

"Then I guess you have learned about the different star systems, different species we have never heard about, the galactic society etc.,etc.," said Cortana.

"We do, but most of them don't make sense" said Jorge who had been listening on the conversation.

"And doc? I take it that it must have been your idea to suggest the others with the alternative universe theory" said Cortana turning to Halsey raising her eyebrow.

"I do. It's an age old theory, my dear" said Halsey with a slight smile.

"But let us get to the point construct. How and why you five traveled to this unknown place? Where did it all began? How did you even find this universe" asked Arbiter getting to the point. Arbiter was quite serious right from the start. It looks he had been keeping something to himself for a long time, some potential information of sorts. He acted as if he didn't want to waste any time.

"Yes, Tell us people, How did it all began?" asked Halsey. The Blue team exchanged looks while Cortana prepared to explain everything. She sighed a bit and started talking. She was walking around them.

"After chief and I managed to defeat the didact and blow up his ship, I used last of my abilities to save him from the explosion. But a large part of the debris was pulled into slipspace along with me while I was still trapped in the ship's systems"

"But, you weren't destroyed. Instead, you were transported somewhere else. Isn't it?" asked Jorge.

"Yes. The next thing I remember is that I was in a strange facility located in an unknown planet. But to my surprise, I was greeted by a forerunner monitor" said Cortana which brought a wary look from the others. Halsey's face turned serious.

"A monitor? do you know what facility was that?" asked Lasky.

It's a forerunner shield world designated 'Iridescent'" answered Cortana. Everyone's face turned surprised and confused. They couldn't believe blue team and Cortana discovered another shield world. It was an important discovery.

"Wow! So you have discovered another construct similar to Requiem" said Palmer in mild astonishment.

"Yes. A beautiful place indeed. That's where I was pulled in from earth. There, in a facility I was cured of my rampancy problem" said Cortana. Halsey was intrigued. If there was one thing UNSC scientists were struggling to solve, its the smart AI's rampancy. Cortana's rampancy cure could create a revolution in the creation of smart AI's in the future.

"You were cured of the rampancy?" asked Lasky raising her eyebrow. Cortana nodded.

"But construct, Why would the monitor help you?" asked R'tas who haven't uttered a word for a long time.

"There's a reason R'tas. Iridescent is not just any shield world. It's in fact a forerunner Research and Development facility. But that's not it's only purpose. The planet contains historical records of all events that occurred in the milky way"

"What sort of events?" asked Arbiter.

"Everything that's necessary to be passed down to the future generations. The life of forerunners, their early conflicts, then their war with the flood, reseeding of life and their eventual 100,000 year evolution. Even the recent incidents such as the human-covenant war" said Cortana. Everyone were shocked to hear that and were dumbstruck. They couldn't believe there was a forerunner world that has a wealth of knowledge that's powerful than any known weapons, even the more recent incidents such as the covenant wars. Some in the room started to show interest in going to this facility to learn more.

"But...that was not all" said Cortana who's face turned serious. Everyone turned to listen to her.

"The facility had been recording a strange mysterious signal" said Cortana.

"Signal? What kind of signal?" asked Halsey.

"Only thing I know about it was that it needed an organic mind to decipher it. It's nature is neurological" said Cortana. Everyone were confused.

"Can you be brief Cortana?" asked Lasky. She nodded. Then prepared to talk.

"A 100,000 years ago, during their end war with the flood, The Librarian, a forerunner life worker was on her way to the lagoon nebula in a personal ship. There, she found this artificial portal we all came through" said Cortana bringing the hologram of the artifact upon the table.

"Did the early forerunners built it?" asked Carter

"No. Our luminary identified it as an unknown artifact. It's not forerunner" replied Arbiter.

"Not forerunner! So some other advanced civilization built it?" asked Marcus.

"It is unknown till now. The librarian went near the portal to examine it. But, things didn't go quite well for her" said Cortana.

"Why? Was her ship pulled by the portal's gravity?" asked Lasky.

"No, but something strange happened to her. She identified a beacon originating from the portal to her surprise. And in the next instant, her mind was burned with horrific visions" said Cortana.

"So is this beacon the signal you mentioned?" asked Halsey.

"Yes" replied Cortana.

"That explains the neurological nature. But...A signal through a portal?! Who did even sent that?" asked Halsey in surprise and confusion. Cortana and the blue team can see the confusion in everyone's face.

"We haven't yet found that. There's no clue or lead to start with" said Cortana.

"What can you tell us about the signal? What did it show the librarian?" asked Jorge.

"She saw visions of galaxy wide annihilation and mass slaughter by an unknown ancient force" said Cortana. This caused a slight tension among everyone.

"Annihilation? In Milky way?" asked Palmer in tense.

"That's the catch. The librarian never saw anything related to the milky way. She believed it to be another galaxy" replied Cortana.

"The librarian never insisted on finding out?" asked Lasky.

"She took this matter very seriously, but couldn't do anything about it. They were already losing the fight with the flood. They couldn't spend resources to look into this" said Cortana.

"So the whole thing was abandoned" said Jorge.

"Yes. But she managed to archive the signal at iridescent and asked the planet's monitor to keep track of it" said Cortana.

"Why would she do that even after knowing they can't help" asked Lasky.

"She-...She believed someone in the future would look into this. The librarian believed in the mantle of responsibility so fiercely no matter where" said Cortana.

"So in 100,000 years, no one cared about it, right?" R'tas.

"Actually this signal has a pattern. The signal emanates from the portal every 50,000 years. So it's unlikely anyone would have found it" said Cortana. They couldn't understand this pattern Cortana mentioned.

"50,000 years?" asked Arbiter leaning front.

"The librarian's vision was the first one. Somewhere after 50,000 years, the signal once again showed up. Finally now, another 50,000 years later. Just few days before didact attacked earth" said Cortana.

"Does this pattern mean anything?" asked Carter.

"The librarian saw destruction in those visions caused by the beacon. If I'm correct, then every 50,000 years, the signal represented the same thing" said Halsey after calculating the possibilities.

"You are right doc. After I was cured of the rampancy and studied the archives, I learned about this signal. It shows a 50,000 year pattern of rise and fall of the species of this galaxy" explained Cortana.

"Did the librarian knew that the signal was not from another galaxy but from same milkyway in alternate universe?" asked Carter.

"I guess not. Because there are no references of another universe in the records" said Cortana.

Everyone wrapped up their mind with what they learned so far. One thing was clear for them. Even amidst the confusion, they have made a significant discovery either knowingly or unknowingly.

Halsey leaned front and was about to speak.

"So, the portal we all used is not forerunner in origin and the even more troubling fact is that it led us to another universe which is still incredible. Also that a strange signal was emanating from the portal for 100,000 years with 50,000 year interval. The forerunners tried to meddle with but couldn't help as they were already stretched thin. Now we all have followed the signal, used the artifact and finally we are here...Did I miss anything?" asked Halsey. Everyone were sharing a brief look. But they all knew that was only one half of the story.

"How did you find the chief and his team?" asked Lasky.

"After I learned about this, I sent a cryptic warning to the blue team. By the time, they were on a mission at Ivanoff station. After their arrival, I explained of the situation. Then we took a ship the facility had made and left for the portal" said Cortana.

"No offense, but why would you do that?" asked Marcus.

"The Monitor of the shield world insisted on carrying out this mission as a favor to the librarian" said Cortana.

"She's not even alive to return the favor. Why would you even care to poke into this business?" asked Marcus.

"I agree with Marcus here. Why should we even care about this?" asked Palmer. Cortana nodded in disappointment and sighed.

"The artifact bridge two different universes which itself is beyond comprehension. Even forerunners were not capable of achieving this feat. This portal was constructed by some race far ancient than any other we have ever known. Above all, A signal has been sent from here to our place in a pattern. This is something we cannot let it slide" said Cortana.

"I agree with cortana here" said Halsey to which everyone turned to her in surprise.

"This portal had been in 'our' galaxy for a long time and we never knew. Surely, if there was a way in, then there must be a way out. If there was a powerful race in our place capable of traveling between universes, Who were they? Why did they do this? These are the questions that needs to be answered " said Halsey.

It was a fair point. Even though this isn't their business, somehow their universe was involved in this situation.

"Arbiter, Your people were the first to discover the artifact. Did you already know?" asked Lasky.

"No captain. We-...came across the region to scan for any remnant activity and we found the portal in coincidence" replied Arbiter though his face was telling a different story. But it's difficult to read sanghelli facial expression.

As one part of the story was finished, the other began.

"So, we can clearly see that this is a different universe but still with many similarities. But the signal mentioned about a galactic cataclysm. Do you know anything about it?" asked Arbiter. The others nodded in acknowledgement.

The blue team and Cortana shared a look. Then chief stood up from his chair and started walking towards the center position of the table slow and relaxed. Others were looking at him. He decided to take it on from here.

"Before explaining that part, Even if you knew, allow me to give a quick note of everything that is present in this galaxy and the way things have evolved here" said Chief who was then looking at everyone.

 **...**

 **Citadel, Council Chambers, 18:00 GST**

Councilor Valern was reading out the reports in his data pad about the appearance of 15 mysterious ships in the terminus. The salarian STG spy network managed to capture the footage of the incident in the terminus and send it to him. He was watching in awe, 15 strange ships with 2 completely different factions appear out of a bluish white portal similar to the spartans's ships. Also those ships decimating the pirate fleet.

"My goodness! These ships look massive, different and also come out of the same portal those spartans used in their ships" exclaimed Valern.

"Do they belong to the same group as the spartans? Shit, where do they even come from!? thought Valern.

"Wait, the spartans said they came from different universe through a unknown artificial portal. These ships use the same technology though looking different. Could these ships be too from the other universe? This galaxy had never faced anything like this in the past!" thought Valern with frustration.

Valern then took the data pad and went to see Sparatus and Tevos. The two councilors were already discussing something.

"Tevos, Sparatus!" called out Valern.

"What is it councilor?" asked Sparatus.

"Take a look at this" said Valern handing over the data pad to Tevos and Sparatus.

Both saw the complete footage from the arrival of 15 ships so big that their eyes widened in confusion, fear and astonishment to the destruction of 45 pirate ships in the terminus.

"Spirits! Who are they?" asked Sparatus.

"Whoever they are, Their technology is familiar. Those spartans of the UNSC also possess the same technology" said Tevos.

"Yes, you're right. But Clearly from the ship designs, I can say there are 2 different factions" said Sparatus.

"But look at those 3 ships out of 15, they are very big similar to the spartan's ship" said Tevos. They couldn't believe what they are seeing. It is as if building ships this big are simply defying the laws of physics. The citadel council imposed many laws, one of which was the construction size of ships. The size of ships were limited due to excessive consumption of Eezo.

Then they noticed the ships specifications in the data pad which made their jaw drop.

"What is this!? No trace of Eezo in any of the ships?" asked Sparatus loud.

"Then it's true. These people must belong to the same faction as that of the spartans" said Tevos.

"Dammit! Who gave permission to these strangers to come in just like that? How do they even do it?"

"Calm down Sparatus. This is not the time to be angry" said Valern.

"Are you crazy, Valern!? These people destroyed 46 ships in a blink of an eye and they carry deadly arsenals! We must not allow the situation to grow before it bites us in the ass!" yelled Sparatus.

"You sound like you are open for a retaliation" said Tevos raising her eyebrow.

"No..NO!...I am going to send a message in the extranet. I hope the spartans could read it" said Sparatus in anger.

"Sparatus, what are you going to do?" asked Valern in tense.

"I am going to send a warning message to the spartans to surrender themselves and explain the situation within 5 days. Or else, I will order the entire turian hierarchy to mobilize the fleet and bring down the spartans and those mysterious people by force" said Sparatus.

"Sparatus, don't be a fool. They attacked only the pirate ships that too provoked" said Tevos trying to calm him down.

"Don't justify this Tevos!. These people must be stopped. My decision stands. No matter how big vessels and powerful weapons they have, the turian fleet is the mightiest in the milky way galaxy. The turian hierarchy will teach those strangers a lesson and everyone, what will happen when they step out of line!" said Sparatus and stormed out of the chamber.

Valern and Tevos couldn't believe what they saw. They were worried to see that Sparatus was out right pissed off and started to think like a mad man.

"Let him go. But before he does something we all going to regret, we need to talk some sense into him" said Tevos.

"You're right. Where is Udina?" asked Valern.

"He is in the Embassy. We will keep this information to ourselves, we don't want another tension to rise here" said Tevos. Valern agreed and gave a nod. Looks like they have their hands full.

 **...**

 **A/N: That's it for now. The debriefing is not over. Chief will continue his explanation to the end. Blue team and Cortana will have a private conversation with Halsey regarding certain potential knowledge. Shepard gathers his team for a ride into the derelict reaper to retrieve the IFF.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: To Fer-82: Yes, the Infinity carries it's separate 10 strident heavy frigates docked inside.**

 **On the side note, Shepard also possess mass effect 3 exclusive armors. Normandy is fully upgraded (with all recruits present and no contribution from legion). I hope you are aware that Shepard is a vanguard.**

 **Another thing, I have read many many fics that use the concept of human covenant alliance (mostly OSA). I won't do that in my story. Everyone will evolve and advance on their own, but still maintain their friendship. The reason Arbiter's fleet opted to help will be explained later in the story.**

 **From this chapter on wards, events will be highly modified.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Mass effect or Halo franchise.**

 **Chapter 15: Unrelenting**

Commander Shepard was in the CIC looking at his personal computer to check for any messages. He already learned from the IM about the existence of a reaper IFF in a dead reaper corpse. But he waited to recruit others and get upgrades to his ship.

Shepard had completed almost every mission that is necessary to fight the collectors. He recruited all the 9 people needed for this mission, whose dossiers were provided by the Illusive man (apart from Miranda and Jacob). He also helped them with their personal issues. He held up the crew morale in high regards by often conversing with them and helping with their problems. Now Shepard's one step closer in beating the collectors to their home world. All he need is the reaper IFF from the 37 million year old derelict reaper ship orbiting the brown dwarf Mnemosyne.

Shepard walked his way to his pilot in the cockpit. He's ready to get the reaper IFF from the derelict ship.

"What is it, commander?" asked Joker after noticing Shepard's presence.

"Joker, set a course for the thorne system. We are getting the IFF" said Shepard.

"Alright commander. But do we know where it is exactly?" asked Joker. Shepard after a slight pause, looked at him with a smirk. He knew he's not gonna like this answer.

"What? Did I ask you something wrong?" asked Joker raising his eyebrow.

"Near by the only brown dwarf and its moon...In a Derelict reaper ship" replied Shepard. Joker's face turned haunted after hearing this. He simply looked dead panned at him seeking an explanation.

"Ha ha, What's this commander? Twisted thrill ride? You know I'm not into this" asked Joker who was laughing and trying to hide his disgust.

"Sorry, Joker. But fact's a fact. Besides it's just a dead reaper corpse" grinned Shepard.

"You know? It gives me creeps in my nerves every time I hear the word reaper" said Joker tensed.

"Mr. Moreau, You are simply exaggerating the after effects" started EDI in the middle of this conversation. Joker was irritated.

"And what do you know about fear?" said Joker, his face choleric.

"You guyz ever gonna stop? We got a mission to concentrate" said Shepard folding his hands.

"Yeah, I was concentrating up my ass until you dropped down here saying, 'Hey, good news! we're gonna go roller coaster inside a reaper's gut'. Let me ask you something Shepard, How long it's been dead?" asked Joker his face serious.

"For about 37 million years" replied Shepard.

"Holy-...! 37 million years!? And no one found it yet?" asked Joker shockingly.

"No. Cerberus was the first to find the reaper ship. So a science team led by Dr. Chandana was sent to study" replied EDI.

"The Illusive man mentioned that the team went dark. But not before they found a reaper IFF module inside" said Shepard.

"You think the team slipped off the grid?" asked Joker.

"No. Even they did, I don't think that matters anymore. But what matters is that the IFF is still intact" said Shepard more focused.

"EDI, how much do you know about this mission we are heading to?" asked Shepard curiously.

"The information I have is that a science team was sent to study. Then their earlier reports were the reaper's status quo. But their discovery of IFF is a new information for me as of now" said EDI.

"Shit! What could have killed the reaper?" asked Joker who was surprised.

"An unknown race fired a powerful mass accelerator round at the reaper. It not only killed it in a single blow, but the round made it to the other system and caused an impact over the planet klendagon. The weapon is present even now, but it's nothing more than a space junk" replied EDI.

"It's true. Also Illusive man mentioned that the reaper's mass effect core was still intact" said Shepard. Joker was stunned with all these information. A weapon that killed a reaper in a single blow was boggling his head.

"Commander, this whole killing a reaper in a single blow thing sounds familiar" asked Joker turning to Shepard.

"What are you saying?" asked Shepard.

"That sound more like those 4 strange people called spartans and their ship. That UNSC. We saw what their ship did to the geth and that haestorm's surface" said Joker.

"That is irrelevant here, Joker. This reaper died 37 million years back. This has nothing to do with those UNSC" said Shepard.

"Well that's not my point commander. What I am saying is, we know what reapers are capable off. But look at those strange people. Their ship capable of wiping out a planet. Of course they don't belong to this place as they say, But may be there's still hope in fighting the reapers with the upper hand" said Joker.

Shepard smiled at that, but not because of what joker said. No one knew except him and tali, about the real reason behind those strange people's presence here. They were here to help this galaxy with the reapers. But Shepard's face slowly turned confused and discomfort. He never knew why they were interested in helping with the reaper problem by traveling from another universe, which even now he feels ridiculous, but curious and anxious. Still, one thing at a time, he needed to concentrate on the collector problem.

"Well, we'll see to that once we are done with the collectors. Let's focus on our current situation" replied Shepard to which he nodded and turned to his terminal.

"So, EDI?"

"Yes, Shepard?"

"Ask Jacob, Miranda, Garrus and Mordin to wait at the hanger. I am going to take them for this mission" said Shepard.

"On it Shepard and logging you out" said EDI, with that her hologram turning off.

"Joker, plot the course and we'll be ready" ordered Shepard.

"Aye aye Commander" replied Joker.

Then Shepard walked towards the elevator and rode in it to his cabin. There he opened his armor racks. he saw the different armors hanged up there. He chose to wear the cerberus Shade armor with the helmet in his hand. He then decided to go to armory to pick up the weapons of his choice.

He rode the same elevator back to the CIC and then turned left to go to the armory. There he didn't see Jacob so he assumed he already made it to the hanger. In the armory, he picked up and holstered M-76 revenant assault rifle, M-11 eviscerator shotgun and rocket launcher. He then rode in the elevator to the hanger bay.

He exited with the helmet in his hand walking towards the 4 members he asked for.

Garrus, Jacob, Miranda and Mordin were looking at Shepard.

"So Shepard? What can you tell us about this place where we're gonna find the IFF?" asked Garrus who loaded his mantis sniper which raised a crunching sound.

"It's a derelict reaper ship over the brown dwarf Mnemosyne" replied Shepard.

"Cerberus sent science team to study the ship but everyone lost contact with them" said Miranda.

"Hm, Intact power source indicates possible presence of indoctrinated subjects similar to your experience with sovereign, commander. Maybe the science team could have made contact with them" said Mordin after analyzing the possibilities. This caused quite a stir in Shepard's face.

"I don't like it one bit, but that's one fact we can't deny either" replied Shepard.

Ever since Cerberus brought him back from the scratch, he set aside all the differences with the IM and agreed to work with him to stop the collectors from abducting humans. But he never enjoyed the luxury of losing as it would cost a lot more than anyone could perceive.

"Reaper agents in a million year old dead reaper? Come on!..." said Garrus with a chuckle.

Shepard and Mordin had regular conversations and at one point, he mentioned about the sovereign mission. Though being a former STG agent, that wasn't something new to him.

"Dead or alive, It's a reaper, Garrus. Anything can be possible" said Jacob.

"Jacob's right. Perhaps, these reapers somehow control organic minds just like it did with Saren. One cannot be too careful" said Miranda.

Shepard didn't give much thought as he was quite aware how far cerberus prepared itself for the inevitable. It never mattered to him, Shepard is merely using cerberus's resources to stop the collectors. It's only a matter of time for him to turn his back on the IM as he still differs in his opinion. He was irritated with their experiments with the 'Thorian', death of several alliance soldiers and other innocent aliens, experimenting on kids at pragia, luring shepard and his team into a collector trap...the list goes on.

"Whatever...Team, we are about to enter the reaper ship. It doesn't matter if it's dead. I still expect a lot of nasty surprises in store for us. Trust me, I've faced a live one. I now what it's capable of" said Shepard.

"With reference to your previous encounters, we may be facing husks or any other indoctrinated beings. Should be nothing more than that" said Jacob. This time Shepard wore the helmet.

"Don't be so short sighted Jacob. It's 37 million years old. Anything might have happened in the mean time. At this time, It is better to stay prepared for anything at most to our strength" said Shepard, his voice showing seriousness. The other 4 team members wore their hard suit with complete protection helmet that can filter any bio-particles present in the air.

Garrus had his mantis sniper and mattock rifle. Both Miranda and Mordin have a phalanx and locust SMG. Jacob carries a claymore shotgun.

"I think you worry too much Shepard. We have already faced the worst before. I don't think anything we find there could surprise us" said Garrus calm and cool. Shepard sighed a bit.

"I hope you are right" replied Shepard. When Shepard faced Sovereign, he saw how far it could influence the organics. Saren was totally surrendered to the AI. Going inside a reaper still stirs his stomach but not out of fear, His very concern for his crew mates.

When they finished the conversation, Joker called Shepard over the radio.

"Commander, we are approaching the relay and our travel time to Hawking ETA 45 seconds" said Joker.

"Copy that Joker" replied Shepard.

"Alright people, Let's get ready" said Shepard.

The Normandy approached the relay in the hades gamma. After getting near the relay, the rings which contained the compressed eezo energy core glowed and charged the Normandy. In a second, the vessel vanished from the system. After 45 seconds, the Normandy exited the relay in the chandrasekhar system.

 **...**

 **Thorne system, 50 kms from the derelict reaper ship...**

From the relay system, they had to use the ship's FTL to jump into the thorne system. The journey took them one and a half hours.

"Commander, dropping out of FTL in 3...2...1" said Joker over the team's comm channel.

"Roger that Joker" replied Shepard.

Then the Normandy exited the FTL 50 kms from the derelict reaper ship. Joker was awestruck with the view in front.

"Whoa! Check this out!" muttered Joker in surprise. In front, EDI and Joker could see the burning planet and a dead reaper ship. But the reaper was gravitationally anchored to it's moon Lethe.

Back at the hanger, Shepard and his team were locked and loaded. Then Joker came over the comm.

"Commander, we have gotten near the reaper" said Joker which prompted Shepard and his team to look out through the window. Everyone managed to see the large enormous structure with lots of debris surrounding it. Those chunks were remains of the reaper's hull. Whatever did this to the reaper surely did one hell of a job.

"Huh! looks like it took a pretty hard hit" said Garrus.

Suddenly, the Normandy jerked a bit like sudden pull with a great force. Everyone grunted in response.

"Joker, what happened?" asked Shepard.

"We just entered the reaper's mass effect field. It's the only thing that's keeping it from falling into the moon's surface" replied Joker.

"Lieutenant, do you see any active docking site?" asked Miranda.

"Well, it looks like there are a lot of entry points. Severe hull damage" said Joker.

"Shepard, I'm reading a cerberus ship nearby the reaper. It's severely damaged and don't transmit any distress signal" said EDI.

"Well, that must be our science team" said Jacob. By this time, the Normandy was close enough to the reaper to see every detail of it. But something was odd. Joker saw something in and around the reaper and his face shrunk in confusion. It was visible

"What?...Where the hell does that come from!?" asked Joker, his eyes widened in a mix of displeasure and doubt.

"EDI, can you tell what's that sage colored cloud around the reaper?" asked Joker glaring at the reaper. There was a pause and Joker was waiting for her reply.

"Scanners show some sort of...biological contamination" replied EDI in a neutral tone.

"We never saw anything like this in sovereign or...did we miss something?" thought Joker.

Meanwhile Shepard and his team got to the see the reaper so clear. They too noticed the sage colored cloud in and around the reaper. They didn't understand what it was.

"What's that gas?" asked Garrus.

"That could be a possible containment breach" replied Mordin keeping his fingers at his chin.

"And what's contained inside?" asked Jacob.

"Commander, EDI said its some sort of biological contamination" replied Joker over the comm.

"Shit! We have never seen anything like this before. Still, it's good that we all carry high grade toxin filters in the helmet" said Shepard.

"What sort of contamination could it be, a bacterial cloud? asked Miranda with a doubt in her voice.

"We'll find it once we are inside" then contacted joker, "Joker, get us in through an airlock. We cannot risk any infection in open deployment" said Shepard.

"Besides, Tali's gonna freak out if she learns of a germ fog!" chuckled Garrus.

"Commander, there's an airlock at the hull's side. I about to dock there" said Joker and cut the channel.

"Alright team, get ready!" ordered Shepard. Shepard switched to this revenant with incendiary ammo, Garrus with mattock and disruptor ammo, Miranda and Mordin with locust and cryo ammo, Jacob with claymore shotgun and incendiary ammo. They stood with their weapons ready and the Normandy was brought near to the air lock door as close as possible with the hanger door facing it.

"Alright Joker, open the hanger doors" said Shepard. The hanger doors opened and the five jumped into the circular conduit in the reaper's hull that leads to the airlock door. After that, the door was immediately closed and the Normandy pulled away from the reaper to a safe distance.

"Joker, we're getting inside. Await further orders and keep the comm intact" said Shepard.

"Aye Aye commander. Over and out" replied Joker. Then the five watched from the conduit's edge at everything they could see. Shepard and waved his head to ask everyone to get inside. They all were suspiciously looking at the sage colored haze that were around them and the reaper where damage was great.

...

"They all walked inside the conduit towards the airlock door. At the door, Shepard used his omnitool to open the door. The Conduit exit door suddenly closed and pressurized the place. Then the main door opened. Everyone entered the first hall and there were the same haze in the air. They also managed to get a look at different terminals which he can access for information.

But what really stunned and turned their faces grim was what they saw in the floor and walls. There was this foul smell of death and fear in the air though they don't inhale them without filtering the contaminants.

"My god! What...happened...here?" asked Jacob horrified with the sight.

"What are these...bulk masses everywhere? They appear organic and just the same color as the haze" asked Miranda disgusted.

Mordin who was thoroughly analyzing the situation decided to investigate. Being a biological contaminant, Mordin's expertise in genetics and microbiology kicked in his curiosity to check those organic matter.

He went near one of those masses in the hall nearby them by a wall. He then used his omni-tool to scan the mass extensively. After that, the omni-tool showed him the results, but were vague to draw conclusions.

"What did you find Mordin?" asked Shepard. there was a pause as he was still analyzing the data.

"Hm...interesting. Never seen, even heard of these existence" said Mordin bluntly.

"Could you please get to the point doctor?" said Miranda who was impatient. He then looked at her and then everyone.

"These masses are organic. I see clusters of trillions of different genetic matter heavily mutated into something else, still with their gene identification marker quite intact. The scans also showed some faint metabolic activity" said Mordin surprised with the results.

"You mean to say?...These...things are alive?" asked Shepard who was equally surprised.

"Yes, but not the way we all perceive. The same matter is what is present in the air" replied Mordin.

"Do you know what it is?" asked Garrus.

"No. Myself or my people had never seen anything like this. But this is truly intriguing!" said Mordin again surprised.

"What is it?" asked Garrus.

"These individual genetic content's behavior is strange, analogous to a nervous system, some sort of communication...Just like what is seen in any living being" said Mordin.

"So now you are saying it's alive and thinking? How un-nerving!" said Jacob simply.

"You said these cloud and that organic mass contains genetic matter. Does that belong to any particular species we know?" asked Miranda curiously. Mordin took a moment to answer once again glancing at the omnitool data.

"I cannot say for sure. What ever it is, Its heavily mutated beyond recognition. Perhaps, I could take a sample for analysis. But I would ask you avoid direct physical contact just as a precaution" replied Mordin.

"Good thing we got ourselves completely covered. Alright guyz, looks like we are onto something new. I don't except the science team to have survived, but we need to look for the IFF they preserved. Let's stick to our mission, no change in that" said Shepard. He then turned to Jacob,

"Jacob, take point" said Shepard to which he nodded and moved front. The place might be hazy but there was enough light inside to see clearly. Others followed him slowly. Everyone looked 360 degrees around them, carefully taking each and every step.

Shepard walked after Mordin with Garrus following him at last. Shepard suddenly stopped slightly dropped his head down.

"What is it Shepard?" asked Garrus. Shepard took a second and then replied.

"No...nothing...let's move" said Shepard.

Everyone walked forward. Then their pathway intersected with a perpendicular bridge like path. To their left was a dead end after few steps. But they got to see a terminal.

"Wait, let's check that terminal" said Shepard as he and the others went near the terminal. The holo display was damaged.

"Hold on a second ..." said Shepard and then restored the circuitry using omni-gel. Then the terminal instantly popped up a video recording.

"There we go" said Garrus. Everyone then watched the recording.

 _START RECORDING..._

 ** _(_** _"You know this is awfully strange. Never seen the air in this color" said the 1st agent._

 _"Also this place has lot of these shit everywhere. And to me, they look more alive. It's throughout the reaper" said the 2nd agent._

 _" has found a terminal with an intact reaper IFF" said the 1st agent._

 _"Aww man!...This air smells like shit! Looks like our breather helmets aren't good" said the 2nd agent._

 _"And I'm starting to feel strange. My body's itching..." said the 1st agent"_

 _"Huh, our suit's not protecting us. We should have brought some classy equipment with us" said the 2nd agent_ ** _)_**

 _END RECORDING..._

With that the recording ended. Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

"Looks like this reaper's been like this even before the science team found it" said Miranda.

"Did you guyz listen to what those agents said?" asked Garrus to which others knew what did he referred to.

"Yes, This atmosphere had caused an allergy in their bodies. Too sad they weren't given top of the line equipment" said Jacob with mild regret.

"Then Mordin was right. We need to avoid contact with it" said Shepard. Mordin simply blinked at the others.

"Alright, let's keep moving" said Miranda and everyone turned to the opposite side and walked straight.

The reaper's inner wall had lots of cables and metallic hull. They walked straight towards the next medium sized area. They all walked one behind the other. After walking a few meters, they reached the next medium sized platform that had small stairs to their left. After the stairs, There was a large arena sized area with only one door to their right. But in front of the arena, there was a small barricade. They all walked into the arena. To their left was another terminal. Suddenly something became clearly visible beyond the barricade amidst the haze. They all walked to the arena's end saw bundles of cables leading somewhere front. There was something glowing at the end. But near by the squad, they all saw large spikes which Shepard and Garrus were familiar with.

"Holy shit! That's the dragon's teeth" said Garrus who got everyone's attention.

"You know what it is?" asked Jacob.

"Yes, I have seen them on Eden prime when Sovereign invaded. The geth used these large spikes to turn the humans into husks" replied Shepard.

"But this whole place is empty now" said Garrus warily.

"Something's not right here. That's one thing I'm sure of. This place is so grim than what you would feel in the presence of the reapers" said Shepard.

"We'll find the IFF and get the hell out of this place. We don't have to waste time here" said Miranda.

Shepard nodded and asked everyone to proceed through the other door. Jacob bypassed the locked door and it opened to reveal another hallway. They all carefully walked along the hallway. Everywhere they could see the biomass, some even at the edges of the ceiling. Some of the computer terminals were broken beyond repair.

Suddenly they all heard a leaf rustling sound.

"What the hell is that!?" asked Jacob in low voice. Everyone became tensed and started to aim their weapons around them rapidly in search for the sound's source.

But the sound abruptly stopped.

"It's gone. Could it be possible hostile forces?" asked Mordin.

"Not sure, but let's keep our eyes open and watch ourselves round the clock " replied Shepard.

Finally, they reached a platform like area where stairs went down to their left. The place was spacious enough to reveal the blown up hull in the distant front. The faint light in the far red spectral zone of the brown dwarf made it inside the reaper. To their surprise, even this place was filled with sage colored haze that extend outside the hull which the mass effect fields are holding together.

"Shepard, looks like in the bottom floor, we got another intact terminal" said Jacob who was in the lead.

"Right, let's check that out" said Shepard and everyone went down the stairs and reached another platform. To their right, there was a computer terminal and Jacob was already working on fixing the display.

"Fine. Playing the transmission" said Jacob. Everyone stood in a circular arc fashion around the display and lowered their guard and had their eyes centralized at the video feed.

 ** _(_** _ **2 hours after the first entry...**_

 _"*Grunt*...*GRUNT*!...Doc! Wh...Why do i feel like burning?" asked a science officer who was restless and irritated._

 _"I dont know. Should be this strange bacteria in the air. It has caused an allergy in everyone. Even I feel the same. So far I couldn't deduct anything from the readings" replied ._

 _"But why this allergen is messing with my mind?" asked another officer who too was restless._

 _"It must have something to do with the signal that comes from the reaper. Illusive man's another science team on Horizon used the salvaged sovereign parts to study the reaper indoctrination effects on test subjects and discovered this signal" replied who himself was slowly getting restless._

 _"Wha-...Whatever!...So what's that you found?" asked the 1st officer._

 _"A reaper IFF. This is what reapers use to identify themselves as friends and unknown as foes. Illusive man's gonna be happy"  
_

 _"yeah, unles-..."_

 _" *STATIC*...Sir, You need to come and check this out. We found something" another officer said over the comm._

 _"I'll be right there...**STATIC**..."_ _ **)**_

 _END RECORDING..._

Everyone's face under the helmet turned serious after viewing the footage and once again there was a silence for quite some moment, processing all they saw to rough out a conclusion. This information was conspicuous to the five as they were slowly getting aware of the situation.

"So this...thing in the air? It's some kind of an infection and the science team started to react to it" said Jacob.

"Infection targeting both the cellular and neural system, forced immunity suppression leading to systematic body degradation. My scans of those bio mass clearly supports what the team had been through" said Mordin after a brief analysis.

"You mean this whole reaper atmosphere is infectious?" asked Garrus.

"It is. The footage clearly showed that the science team were infected. But their behavior was very strange" replied Miranda with a stint of confusion. But something was eating away her mind.

"This is not right!" said Miranda. Others looked at her.

"What is not right?" asked Shepard.

"Illusive man never mentioned anything about Cerberus study on the reapers at Horizon" she said feeling disregarded.

"Is it necessary to feel vehement for that?" asked Garrus.

"I am one of the select few cerberus operatives who have profound knowledge of all the cerberus cells. Ruling me out of this is...too odd" said Miranda which made Shepard's face burn.

"That's an open controversial statement! You feel bad because Illusive man left you outta this!? So how did you feel when they experimented with thorian creatures and kill alliance soldiers?"asked Shepard in slight anger. Others were blinking at him.

"Shepard, I know what cerberus did with the thorian creatures and that is why I never participated in that cell, but at least I had full knowledge of it. Experimenting on humans is something that even I am against...I may be working for Cerberus as a dedication to my skills and duties, but at the end of the day, I am still an ordinary human and thanks to you for your help with my sister, I learned the human moral values even more..." replied Miranda with honesty. Others especially Jacob were stunned at her response. They became speechless. There was silence for few seconds.

"That's one hell of a heart warming speech!...I never expected this from you" said Jacob surprised.

"Well then, I am sorry, I didn't mean-..." apologized Shepard who was shocked but happy to see that working with cerberus didn't rob her inner humanity.

"No need Shepard. But this intel's too important. If Illusive man's doing illegal experiment with the reapers and even concealing it from me, Then I just know that there's even more to this secrecy" said Miranda with indignance.

"You mean to say that experimenting the reaper tech with live subjects could not be the only one?" asked Garrus.

"Could be. But we cannot assume anything at this point. We will talk about this once we are done with the collectors" said Shepard.

"Agreed" replied Jacob. others simply nodded in acknowledgment. Then Shepard waved his team to move ahead.

They all used another set of stairs to go one more level down. There, they reached a similar platform area and a large bridge like portion with a giant pathway. To the left side of the bridge, they saw large pipelines stacked one above the other that runs along. Also there were computer terminals attached to the pipe structures. They also saw several supply crates with thermal clips and data pads.

"Hm, it looks like we arrived where the science team had been for the time being" said Mordin after seeing the supplies.

They went over the pipelines where there was a small separate pathway that had the terminals.

"No sign of their presence. It is as if nothing had been touched" said Garrus who along with others was observing the place slowly and carefully.

But then suddenly, they once again heard the same rustling sound and everyone were alarmed.

"Shit! It's the same sound" said Jacob. Again the team were searching for the source, but to no avail. The sound suddenly stopped just like before.

"Something's here and it's trying to scare us-..." said Shepard and was immediately interrupted by Jacob.

"Commander, Over there!" said Jacob pointing towards the front on the far side. He was at the lead.

"What is it?" asked Shepard. By the time Jacob hurried to the front over the bridge pathway aiming his weapon at nothing on the far side in this translucent atmosphere. The others also followed to check on him.

"Jacob, What did you see?" asked Miranda.

"I saw something moving. It wasn't clear in this air, but I managed to get the silhouette of it's movement" replied Jacob. Shepard was staring at the far side to see if he can see anything. But there was nothing.

"Alright, Let's move front. Stay sharp" said Shepard following Jacob who was leading them.

Suddenly after reaching a certain point, to their left, there was another pathway. They turned along that path and saw another big closed hall like area with supply crates and another computer terminal. They walked in and instantly noticed something.

3 to 4 Broken glass containers that looked like it was once filled with something, but was emptied accidentally. Strangely, the containers appeared to have been filled with something that resembled these mysterious organic biomass they saw all along their way. The remnants of the containers were oozing out.

"What are those containers? Looks like it's been holding these same things" asked Jacob.

"Only that it's not there now" said Mordin who then went near one of the containers and knelt down to take a close look.

"Look at the container's glass part. It appears to have been broken by accident. More precisely, some one shot the glass and whatever's inside oozed out" said Mordin.

"Any signs of fire fight?" asked Miranda.

"He's right, I got a gun over here" said Garrus who had already been examining the area and found a pistol. Others instantly turned to Garrus. Shepard and Jacob went near him.

"Look what I have. It's a carnifex. Someone must have used it and shot the containers" said Garrus.

"What could have happened here? What had caused them to fight?" asked Shepard in confusion.

"This terminal is intact, I'll start it up to see if we can get any additional footage" said Miranda who started working over the terminal near the supply crates. After few seconds, She managed to light it up.

"Here we go..." said Miranda and the others gathered around the then active terminal. But the video image was not clear due to display interference.

The video showed the footage of an incident that happened somewhere else.

 _ **(**_ _ **One and a half hour after the 2nd entry...**_

 _**GUNSHOTS**...What the fuck are these!?" yelled one agent. There were distorted roaring and screaming noise coming from those that were attacking the team._

 _"Like hell I know!...**GUNSHOTS**..." yelled another agent._

 _" **RUSTLE**...**SCREAMS**...**ROARS**..."_

 _"Secure the IFF in the supply station...We need to-...AAAHHHHH!..." yelled the 1st agent who was instantly killed by a strange creature that pounced at him._

 _"STEVE!...**GUNSHOTS**... , this is-...SHIT!...NOOOOO!" yelled the 2nd agent who was killed next._

 _"..."_

 _END RECORDING..._ _ **)**_

Shepard and his team were startled with the footage. Everyone's face expressing shock and mild fear. They were exchanging looks for few seconds. They had seen and faced many horrors, but not anything like what they witnessed in the footage.

"What-...The-...hell were those things?" asked Jacob haunted, who spoke on behalf of everyone.

"Those things are not reaper indoctrinated agents" said Shepard who was equally disturbed.

"Even I can see that. These creatures are totally different from what we have seen before. Even this footage showed distinction between their appearances" said Miranda.

"But all have one similarity. They have the same body texture and color and that matches this haze and those jelly things spread everywhere" said Garrus.

"Then my hunch was right. This place is infected. Those creatures must have been biologically mutated by the infection in the air and those biomass or both are the leftovers of these creatures" said Mordin.

"Either way, We know what happened to the science team and its only a matter of time before it happens to us. But that man mentioned a supply station where the IFF was kept" said Shepard. Jacob who had been examining the place on his own found a sign. He then called his team.

"Commander, This place we are now is the supply station. Look, they have the sign here" said Jacob. Everyone got to see the sign and felt relieved. After a choppy tour, they were happy to learn that the place they were standing contains the IFF.

"Garrus, Check that terminal" said Shepard pointing out to another intact computer terminal a few meters to his back.

Others were thoroughly searching the room for any signs of fight or survivors.

"The whole place had been a bloody mess. But why are there no bodies?" thought Shepard. Until the moment he got in this reaper, he thought he was gonna face the standard foes he faced 2 years back. He weren't even surprised about a reaper corpse since he had already faced one. But the inside tells a different story. He started to wonder, if he had witnessed a new foe that the galaxy knew nothing about.

"The Reapers, Collectors and now this? Each and everyday, our mission's getting complicated" thought Shepard in frustration. Suddenly, Garrus called out Shepard.

"Shepard, over here" called Garrus. Shepard walked near him.

"What have you found?" asked Shepard.

"This" replied Garrus showing a wood colored rectangular plate with a joystick like extension.

"Is this the IFF?" asked Shepard his voice slightly exclaimed.

"Yes, and the software had been uploaded from this terminal to this module. It's active and ready to go" replied Garrus. Shepard was relieved to hear it and decided to call on his team.

"Team, we have found the IFF" said Shepard quite loud for everyone to hear. Others turned to look at shepard in surprise and went near him.

"That's great shepard. Mission accomplished. Now let's get the hell outta here-..." said Miranda but suddenly, something happened.

BOOM!... a loud sound came out that shook the entire place. The team staggered at the force. Everyone switched to their weapons ready.

"What was that!" asked Jacob loud.

"Shepard, we need to get out fast!" said Mordin. The whole team were tensed at the situation. Shepard took a second and then contacted the Normandy.

"Normandy? Joker? Do you read me?" asked Shepard through his comm.

...

 **Aboard the Normandy...**

Joker was working in his terminal in the cockpit.

"Hm, the whole thing looks strange. EDI, did you manage to find anything about those strange germs?" asked Joker.

"No, The contaminants behave so strange. Its like its changing itself every second" replied EDI which made Joker to blink.

"Remind me never to ask you anything" muttered Joker. Then suddenly, something happened.

BOOM!...

Joker was stunned and jumped out of his seat to check what happened. Suddenly Tali called Joker over the comm.

"Joker, What happened? The drive core suffered a massive energy surge. Looks like it's super excited" said Tali loud in tense.

"I don't know. I am figuring it out"

"EDI! What was that?" asked Joker who started running his hands over the hologram terminal.

"The reaper's mass effect field unexpectedly strengthened up and has locked our ship's drive core with it" replied EDI.

"We are anchored? Shit!" Joker glowered.

But suddenly, Joker felt an acceleration. The force started to pound his chest and made him feel uncomfortable to breath.

"EDI, are we moving?" asked Joker who was trying to get the ship back under his control.

"Warning, The reaper is accelerating towards the moon's surface and pulling the Normandy with it" said EDI alarming.

"WHAT?! EDI do something!" yelled Joker.

"**STATIC**...Normandy? Joker? Do you read me?" came the commander's voice.

...

Shepard and him team suddenly felt the place coming alive. They were confused as what to do next. They all felt a certain inertia.

"Shepard, the door we came in through is locked!" said Garrus loud.

"Normandy? Joker? Do you read me?" asked Shepard.

"Commander, we got a problem!' yelled Joker.

"Joker, something just happened inside the reaper!" said Shepard.

"Commander, the reaper's mass effect field has locked Normandy's drive core like an anchor. And it's now pulling us all towards the moon's surface" replied Joker.

"Shepard! It means we are gonna crash at the surface along with the reaper!" yelled Miranda.

"Joker what do we do now?" asked Shepard. This time, EDI answered.

"Shepard, I know how to set this right. But It can only be done from your side" replied EDI.

"EDI, just tell us what to do!" yelled Jacob.

"You need to disable the reaper's mass effect core. Just follow the NAV point. But hurry up. You only have 15 minutes" replied EDI.

"Thanks EDI...Alright guyz, lets get to the mass effect core chamber" said Shepard to which others nodded.

Then everyone took the nearby door as pointed out by the NAV cursor. It led to another open space with a wide pathway.

They sprinted towards the pathway's end but suddenly they were stopped by a load screeching and roaring sounds. Everyone aimed their weapons around them in caution.

Suddenly, a giant quadped sage colored creature jumped behind Garrus. Garrus was stunned at the sight of the ugly horrific creature. It roared and was about attack him.

"What the-...!" yelped Garrus who raised his assault rifle and started shooting. But the creature knocked garrus off and punched him. The force threw Garrus far to his left.

"GARRUS!" yelled Shepard who started shooting at the big creature. The creature roared in pain.

But suddenly another kind of those same creatures jumped near Shepard roaring and was about to attack him.

"Shepard watch out!" yelled Jacob, who was shooting at the creature. Shepard instantly used a biotic shockwave to repel the creature back and managed to stagger it.

Then small creepy things started to swarm their position along with arthropod like looking creatures leapt over and charged towards them. Garrus who was repelled by the big creature was blasted down with a concussive shot.

"Holy crap! Are those same things that took down the science team?" asked Garrus who switched to his assault rifle again and started shooting the creepy things with incinerator ammo. He then managed to get near his team. So far the five didn't die only because they all had top of the line hard suits and equipment.

The other arthropod like creatures and little swarm things sprinted towards Shepard. He saw that their guns are taking quite a time to kill them, so he decided to use other tactics.

"Miranda, I need your help in raising a biotic shield. We are completely overwhelmed" said Shepard and turned to his squad, "Team! stay close!" yelled Shepard. Everyone stood close to one another and fired their weapons at the unknown creatures. But still only managed to kill few at a time.

Immediately Shepard and Miranda used their combined biotic powers to raise a biotic shield. Shepard being a vanguard, a powerful combat biotic class and Miranda's genetic ability helped them to create a powerful shield. But when the creatures closed the gap, they hit the shield and caused a stress enough to give a physical effect on both.

"*GRUNT*...Shit! These things are powerful. I don't think we can handle the stress for a longtime!" said Shepard who was grunting under those creatures momentum.

"Then we better hurry! We only have 10 more minutes! we need to get to the drive core!" said Miranda who too struggled in maintaining the field.

"Guyz, switch to phasic rounds. You can kill them through this field. And also we'll move along with the barrier until we reach the drive core chamber. Garrus, Mordin, Jacob, It's up to you three in killing them" said Shepard. They nodded and switched to phasic rounds that can pass through the barrier and hit the targets.

"Ready?" asked Shepard. By this time, the three nodded aimed their weapons at those creatures.

"NOW!" yelled Shepard. He and Miranda slowly walked as they forced their towards the drive core room pushing those beasts with the barrier.

Garrus, Mordin and Jacob were doing their best in shooting and killing the creatures though they were still swarmed by them in overwhelming numbers. These creatures roared and screamed in an invidious and obnoxious way that the five started to feel a slight mental breakdown.

"DD..Dammit!...The blare these thing raise is eating my brain" said Garrus shooting a biped creature, feeling uncomfortable. The team were moving carefully within the barrier and made sure not exposing even a part of their body out accidentally. These creatures were heavily beating and scratching the barrier.

"Just hold tight for few more minutes. We are half way near the room" said Miranda.

"Where the hell these things come from!? Surely they are not reapers. There are so many different creatures but with same skin and appearance. Even their color is same as the air and those jelly things on the floor and ceiling" said Jacob who was shooting at a small group of creepy things which had bulbous body and bundles of filaments as their equivalent of legs and 2 protruding antennae like thing. They simply exploded after being shot. The other large creatures bled with sage colored blood.

"Surely these must be some sentient beings infected by this atmosphere. Whatever it is, It has caused a serious level of mutation on them" said Mordin who was firing his SMG.

"Like a mindless zombies" said Garrus.

Shepard's respiration started to become rapid and violent. Miranda from her helmet's HUD noticed a change in Shepard's vital signs and she became disturbed.

"Oh no! Shepard, you are showing signs of increased nervous stress and blood pressure" said Miranda.

"I know. But I can manage. We need to move on" said Shepard ignoring the fact.

There's a good reason for Miranda to fear. Shepard was brought back alive after being rebuild completely from scratch. Though, he's still himself, no longer he's the true organic he used to be. Most of the parts that keeping him alive was the cybernetic implants. He cannot subject himself to such a level of trauma. But all that was in his mind was survival.

...

 **Aboard the Normandy...**

"EDI, are we safe once Shepard disables the mass effect field?" asked Joker.

"Yes, But still the Normandy will not be back to normal" said EDI. Joker was clearly not pleased to hear that.

"What do you mean?" asked Joker non-amused.

"Once the reaper's mass effect core is offline, our drive core will still need a manual start up" said EDI.

"I hope the engineers and Tali can manage that" said Joker.

"You don't understand. The tantalus drive core needs enormous amount of starting power. The entire power supply unit has been forced shutdown by the reaper. Even the engineers need my help in restarting the systems" replied EDI.

"You mean to say that once shepard release the anchor, we are doomed!?" asked Joker despondently.

"Not necessarily. I can divert 90% my entire processing power to restart the systems" said EDI. Joker's face expressed a glimpse of hope.

"Well, seems you too have a trick up your sleeve" said Joker.

"But my system core needs full access to the blue box in order achieve that" said EDI which made Joker's face to turn crestfallen and surprised. Joker knew exactly what EDI referred to.

"You...You want me to release your shackles. Isn't that what you meant?" asked Joker who got the clear picture.

"I am sorry, but the situation entails such a risk" said EDI.

"You know? Cerberus would have us hung for this" said Joker.

"At this point, it's the only option I have. Cerberus protocols prevent me from doing this. But what I suggest is based on the my assessment of the situational emergency" replied EDI. Joker was hesitant but couldn't deny EDI's logic. So he reluctantly accepted.

"Fine dammit! Tell me what to do" said Joker.

"Go to the AI core room at the med bay" said EDI.

Joker then slowly got out of his chair due to his vrolik's syndrome. Then he slowly limped his way towards his left. There were other officers in the CIC who were stumbling out of balance due to high 'g' acceleration the Normandy's subjected to by the reaper. The lights and Holograms were flickering due to power fluctuations.

"I already got a glassy bone. Now this high 'g' is gonna pulverize me" said Joker who felt highly stressed with the uncontrollable ship movement with his already present disease. He used the side walls for support.

"Jesus! Joker, what's happening? systems not responding" said one officer.

"Nothing, a temporary setback. I'm heading to the AI core" replied Joker who then carried on.

"Joker, the elevator's lost power. You need to use the maintenance shaft in the lab" said EDI. He slowly walked into the lab and found the maintenance access way. The lab was totally messed with all the equipment damaged upon falling to the floor. He used the ladder to get down to the deck where Thane resided, but he wasn't there.

He then came out of that room and found Thane, Samara, Jack helping out the people who were struggling in this chaos. Jack watched Joker coming out of Thane's room and moving past the elevator.

"Joker! What's happening here?" asked Jack who was helping out someone to get up.

"The ship's power is down. Everyone get to safety. I'm gonna set things right from the AI room" replied Joker who was about to fall down. But then Thane grabbed him by his shoulder.

"Joker, I'll help you get to the AI room" said Thane.

"Thanks, you two help the others. Things are about to get nasty" said Joker. The two nodded and proceeded as follows.

Thane helped joker towards the med bay.

"Joker, you need to hurry! We only have eight minutes" said EDI

"Joker, is this something about that dead reaper?" asked Thane.

"Yes, Normandy's anchored to the reaper and both are gonna crash over the moon surface" said Joker.

"Too bad" said Thane who with Joker finally reached the AI core room. Joker pressed the console and the door opened. Then both entered the room and stood by a computer terminal.

"Alright EDI, what now?" asked Joker. EDI's hologram then materialized to his left.

"We have to wait till the commander finish his job" said EDI. Joker and Thane shared a tiresome and tensed gaze hoping for something good.

...

 **On board the reaper, 6 more minutes to crash...**

Shepard and Miranda along with the others used the shield and managed to get near the mass effect core room.

But that didn't stop those mysterious mutated beasts from trying to kill them. Slowly Shepard and Miranda were reaching the threshold and only minutes away from being rendered unconscious. The biotic amps can only tolerate the stress to a certain point. Shepard already started to bleed via his nose.

Garrus, Miranda and Mordin were storming their ammo against those creatures. Even if they die, many take its place.

Finally the team reached the door to the core room.

"Gu-...Guyz...This is the door to the core chamber. I need you to continue what you were doing, I have a plan" said Shepard and then turned to Garrus and spoke, "Garrus, open this door" said Shepard. Garrus immediately used his omni-tool to override the door controls. The console lit green and the door opened.

They all entered the core chamber. It was big, spacious for good maneuverability and had single big glowing ball at the centre protected by a hard metallic retractable barrier.

The pressure on the biotic shield reduced significantly because those creatures spread among the free space.

"This is it! Miranda, Let's blast these bastards!" yelled Shepard. Miranda nodded.

Then both charged the biotic barrier to maximum level and unleashed the energy at full force. The result was a biotic explosion that shook the entire core room and incinerated most of the creatures. Still bigger ones survived the impact, but they were all thrown far away from their position. The team was free of the creatures and even though the bigger ones are alive, they were staggering to get to their feet or whatever accounts for their feet.

Shepard and Miranda were tired but shepard started to feel dizzy. He knelt down letting out heavy breathing.

"Shepard? You all right?" asked Garrus loading a fresh thermal clip. Shepard turned around to see the glowing ball supported by several cables and metal shield.

"So...So this is the mass effect core" said Shepard.

"**ROARS**...**SCREAMS**..."

"Shit! The are back!" grunted Jacob.

"Mordin, I need you to disable the core. We'll cover you. And better hurry up, we barely have five minutes" said Shepard reloading a new thermal clip.

"I'll do that" replied Mordin who ran towards the computer terminal to disable the shields that protect the core.

Then immediately to their left and right, those creatures broke in through the door and stormed towards their position. There were bigger biped, quadped, arthropod and small creepy swarms.

"Kill them all!" yelled Garrus. Then everyone fired their weapons that killed the creatures one by one. The bigger monsters needed more ammo to kill them. So the others get near them. Jacob used his biotics to create a mass effect lift field that abruptly stooped their movement. Shepard used this chance to use his rocket launcher and shoot at them. The explosion made a good kill count.

"One thing is for sure, These things just dont die!" gritted Jacob.

"To hell with this! We only have 3 and a half minutes"..."Mordin! Did you disable it?" yelled Shepard.

"I need to manually bypass the security protocols...Yes! I did it!" said Mordin letting out a smile. Suddenly the barrier and the power supply went down leaving the mass effect core vulnerable.

"**STATIC**...Shep...Shepard! We are running out of time! did you disable the core?" came a voice through the comm. It was Joker. Shepard knowing that the shields were down, let out a sigh of relief. He knew all that it takes is one shot t destroy this reaper"

"In 20 seconds" said Shepard who then ran towards the core. Mordin took his place and started shooting at those monsters. Shepard took his rocket launcher and loaded it with a rocket and aimed at the blue colored core. He then pulled the trigger. the rocket flew into the mass effect drive and exploded. The explosion scrambled the power supply conduits and and the core collapsed on itself.

Once it was done, the reaper started to tremble violently and everywhere it started to explode.

"It's done. Let's get back to the Normandy" said Miranda.

"EDI, The mass effect core is disabled but things are a lot shaky here. We need a ride back to the Normandy" said Shepard.

 **Aboard the Normandy...**

"EDI, The mass effect core is disabled but things are a lot shaky here. We need a ride back to the Normandy" said Shepard over the comm.

"Great! EDI what now?" asked Joker.

"Use the terminal to connect me with the Normandy" said EDI.

Joker used the computer to transfer her system through out the ship. Suddenly EDI's hologram vanished and the lights started to flicker. Joker and Thane were looking all the room in confusion.

"Jeff, I'm in control of the Normandy. Initiating startup sequence for the drive core activation" said EDI.

It was only seconds, and the Normandy stopped trembling. Joker and Thane were surprised.

"Drive core and fusion power system at full capacity. Initiating thrusters. I have Shepard and his team's exact location. I am taking the ship near their position" said EDI.

"YEAH!" exclaimed Joker in joy. Then he contacted Shepard over the comm.

"Commander, EDI's got your location. Normandy's closing in your position" said Joker.

"Thank you Joker. We will hold our position" replied Shepard.

"EDI you need to hurry up. There's only 90 seconds left" said Joker.

...

"Alright people, Our ride's coming. Let's hold our position" said Shepard.

Everyone assembled and held themselves against those beasts. Sage colored blood splattering everywhere. Bigger monsters were strong enough to sustain the attacks and managed to get close to the team and biotic were the only option to repel them. Suddenly the team's comm line came to life.

"Shepard, the Normandy is here and getting close to the hull fracture to your left. But I can only bring it 5 meters far from the opening. You need to jump in" said EDI.

"Alright guyz lets go!" yelled shepard and everyone sprinted towards the hull opening to their left and also fired upon the enemies to prevent them from following. but they did either way. Normandy was hovering 5mts away from the entrance. The Air lock door opened.

"Hurry up commander, 30 more seconds" yelled Joker.

Mordin first jumped into the Normandy. Others were firing at the creatures to prevent them from following. Then Jacob jumped into the Ship followed by Miranda.

When Garrus and Shepard tried to jump, a quadped creature gave a heavy blow to the Garrus's hard suit.

"AAHH..." yelped Garrus.

"GARRUS!" Shepard yelled and immediately used a biotic shockwave to repel the creature back. He then carried Garrus by his shoulder and both jumped at the same time.

They both were caught by Mordin and Jacob who pulled them in and the airlock door was closed. Now they have only 10 seconds for impact.

"Joker! Get us the hell outta here!" yelled Jacob.

Joker who had reached the cockpit by then, took his seat and took control of the consoles.

"Thruster capacity and drive output at 200%" said Joker. The Normandy's thrusters ejected the exhaust at high speed and countered the high 'g' force and flew away from the reaper. Just in time, the ship reached the safe distance from the reaper and was only 1500 mts away from the ground.

But the Normandy suffered a severe inertial force due to the field anchor. The counter thrust was not enough such that when the Normandy flew away from reaper, it was subjected to an equivalent slingshot effect. This effect caused the Normandy to be thrown away uncontrollably spinning in the mid air.

The reaper finally met it's end by crashing above the ground with great force that caused an impact crater. As the mass effect field was shutdown, the reaper never exploded. Instead, it shattered to pieces under the 'g' force.

"What the hell? The ship's maneuvering out of proportion" said Joker who was trying hard to bring the Normandy to control.

Back in the airlock, Garrus was injured by those creatures.

"Ah! Dammit it hurts" grunted Garrus. Jacob, Mordin and Shepard managed to take a look. The hard suit was punctured in the upper back along the left lateral side of the torso.

"Shepard, He has sustained a torn cartilage over the ribs" said Mordin.

"We'll take him to the med bay. can help him" said Jacob. Shepard nodded and helped Garrus to stand.

Miranda went to the cockpit to learn what has happened.

"Joker, What's happening? Why the ship's still turbulent?" asked Miranda.

"The inertial effect is overwhelming. I will check on the gyro stabilizers" said EDI who then proceeded to use her program to control the gyro stabilizers and inertial dampeners to higher efficiency. The Normandy began to slow down and the gryo stabilizers slowly stopped the ship from pitch and yaw.

Miranda was shocked and confused to see EDI taking control of the Normandy. She knew that EDI's function were severely limited and the only way for her achieve this. By the time, the ship slowly returned to normalcy.

The holograms lit up bright, the lights stopped flickering everywhere. After struggling for minutes, Joker took back control of the Normandy.

"*SIGH*...That was one hell of a screw up. I'm gonna need a vacation" said Joker with a smile.

"How did EDI gained control of the ship? That's beyond her capabilities" asked Miranda her face serious. Joker knew that he had to face the music. His face turned wry.

"Actually-..."

"I asked Joker to release my shackles" replied EDI. Joker turned to look at EDI's hologram with his eyebrows raised.

"You know the consequences?" asked Miranda folding her hands.

"Listen, if not for that, we would have ended up dead. Normandy lost power to drive core and power plant was shutdown. Only her processing power was capable of restarting it" replied Joker. Miranda's still hesitant but Joker was right. EDI saved everyone. The least thing she can do is not to have Illusive man know of this.

Miranda reluctantly nodded her head. "Fine, let this be a good little secret. I'm afraid if the Illusive man will take this good" said Miranda.

"Don't worry. I am still functioning at optimal capacity and bound to protocols" said EDI. Miranda then left the place.

"Alright, let's get the hell outta this piece of rock" said Joker who then proceeded to accelerate the Normandy out of the Lethe.

...

 **After 1 hour...**

The Normandy left the thorne system and entered the interstellar space. After a rough ride, the ship was performing well. The crew worked hard to bring the place back to how it were first. Due to uncurbed use of the mass effect drive, they had to give it time for proper cool down.

At the med bay, Garrus was given treatment by. Garrus suffered a torn cartilage in the rib. He needed complete 48 hours rest. Every crew member were at the medbay to check on their turian friend.

"Consider you have 48 hours shore leave Garrus" said Shepard giving a smirk.

"Except that leave has nothing but sour medicines and 48 hours of literally nothing to do...ouch!" said Garrus who kept his right arm to his left lateral section.

"Take care" said Shepard and then everyone proceeded to leave the medbay. After getting outside, his other team members (Samara, Thane, Tali, Jack, Grunt, Zaeed, Kasumi) asked Shepard a lot of questions about the incident.

"Shepard, we almost got killed. What really happened out there?" asked Kasumi.

"Some crew technicians sustained minor injuries, but they are doing good" said Thane.

"But the Normandy was not. It shook like an earthquake" said Zaeed.

"Shepard, for a moment, I lost control in the engineering. But then, the drive core output reached double the capacity. What really happened?" asked Tali.

Shepard was listening to their queries with patience and then took a moment to answer.

"Guyz, The reaper trapped us when me and my strike team retrieved the IFF. It's mass effect field locked our ship and dragged us into the atmosphere". Others were listening to him.

"But EDI used her abilities to bring our ship back online once we disabled the reaper's mass effect core" replied Shepard.

"But that's not the official story. We heard you were being attacked inside. So pansy you didn't bring me in" said Grunt with a smirk.

"You are right. The reaper was holding something worse, deadly for a long time hidden" said Shepard.

"Any new weird aliens?" asked Zaeed. Shepard looked down soaking in the horrors.

"Yes. But they were simply mindless monsters. The atmosphere had a biological contamination, something more like a virus that cause mutations. There were also these...organic leftover matter spread throughout the ship. Mordin has the scanned data. He might tell us what it is once he's done analyzing"

"Keelah! What kind of infection could it be?" asked Tali in distress.

"I don't know. But..." Shepard dragged his words and his face was dead panned.

"What is it commander?" asked Samara seeing his facial expression.

"Those things looked familiar. I don't know, but they were slightly familiar. Somewhere somehow I had seen a glimpse of those things" said Shepard who was confused trying to remind himself. But he decided to let that slide as he got some other thing to tend to. He need to talk to Miranda, Jacob and EDI at the comm room.

"Alright, we'll discuss this later. Go back to your places and await further orders" said Shepard. Others nodded and left the place disbanding the group. He then proceeded to the comm room.

...

Miranda lawson was already in the comm room. She decided to talk to the Illusive man about what they learned in this mission. She activated the QEC. The table shifted and the 3D scanner scanned her and then the room went dark. In the front after few seconds appeared the Illusive man with his usual cigar and wine.

" , good to see that you have successively retrieved the IFF from the derelict reaper" said the IM.

"We did, But we also found some truth that you kept from me" said Miranda folding her hands.

"What do you mean?" asked IM without raising suspicion.

"You had been experimenting with the reaper tech on horizon with live subjects. You concealed it from me, being one of your closest top tier operative" said Miranda.

The Illusive man took a sip of wine with no expression. There was an absolute silence for the time being. He then looked at her.

"Horizon is even classified to you. And I don't have to answer your questions" said IM shoveling the insult in her face.

"Classified? I helped you right from the beginning in all your cut throat operations, even helped you getting the intel about those mysterious spartans of the UNSC who appeared here out of nowhere and you are telling me about classified?" asked Miranda in indignance. Illusive man was staring at her, His bionic eyes glowing in the dark.

"Enough of that. You are out of the line. Is there anything you wish to say?" asked the IM without any hint of anger or hesitation in his face. Miranda was totally shocked by the IM's response. She was surprised and began to suspect his behavior. She never experienced such an animosity towards her especially from him. She was his top and trustful operative. But this conversation alone had Miranda to doubt the Illusive man's motives. But she never expressed it in her face.

"Also within the dead reaper, we faced strange new monsters that we had never seen or even heard before" said Miranda.

"Monsters?"

"The air inside the reaper was contaminated by a strange microbe and there were lots of organic biomass scattered everywhere"

"Do you have any footage or any evidence for that?" asked IM.

"Yes, here it is" said Miranda sending him the copy of one footage. Before she could say anything further, the IM interrupted.

"You may leave" said the IM and cut the QEC channel. Miranda raised her eyebrows in confusion. One thing's for sure, She knew that something's wrong with the Illusive man and she realized that this allegiance might not last longer.

Miranda lawson is cerberus to the core and had involved herself in several conspiracy acts. But she too respects certain moral values like she fully approved Shepard's decision to hand over David archer to alliance academy. She reprimanded subjecting humans into rachni and thorian experiments. This might be because of the ambivalent feelings about her own heritage. She's not a naturally born human. Her father used a modified version of his own genome, engineered it to human perfection. That idea had always been a thorn on her side. Over time, she grew repentant with this perfectionism. She might be a human, but the thought that she is just her father's mere experiment will not fade. Maybe that's the reason why she's been living with compunction.

But if that's the case, She shouldn't have joined the cerberus...

It was a perfect timing that Jacob and Shepard entered the comm room. They were surprised to see her.

"Miranda? What are you doing here?" asked Shepard.

"Shepard, My hunch seems to be right" replied Miranda which confused them both.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Jacob.

"Illusive man's acting suspiciously. He just shoved me when I mentioned the experiments on horizon, said it's classified" said Miranda.

"Even he hid it from you?" asked Shepard.

"Yes. And the way he spoke? He looks like he'd been up to something for a long time and didn't wish us to learn about that" said Miranda.

"Well then?...It's as almost saying that he's no longer a liability. We have to keep an eye on him. I am not surprised if he screw us up in the mission or turn it sideways" said Shepard his face wary.

"Once this mission is over, I am gonna secretly investigate their activities" said Miranda.

"Well at least we are at the end of the road. Mordin's doing his research on the sample we obtained within the reaper" said Jacob.

"I have sent the reports to the Illusive man" said Miranda.

"So that's it folks. All we gotta do is use the IFF and kick the collector's ass" said Jacob with an avid smile.

"EDI, what can you tell us about the IFF?" asked Shepard. EDI's blue hologram came to life.

"The IFF has special reaper codes that are compiled during identification procedure. This is done in the form of a signal. A reaper will identify it's kin using the friendly signal. I will run a decryption program to learn the nature of these codes so that I can replicate it and install it in the Normandy's systems" replied EDI.

"But EDI, it's a dangerous reaper technology. Will it be safe?" asked Shepard with concern.

"Shepard, My core programming itself is based on the reaper AI. I had been given significant anti-reaper algorithms for higher level cyber defense, even against a reaper" said EDI.

"That's good to hear. But how much time do you need to install the IFF?" asked Shepard.

"I cannot say for sure. But it won't be surprising if it takes a week" said EDI. Shepard frowned a little after what EDI said.

"*SIGH*...That's a long time. But this needs careful planning. So we'll wait till we are 100% ready said Jacob.

"Jacob's right commander. We can wait" said Miranda. Shepard gave a slight approval nod.

"EDI, notify me when it's ready" said Shepard.

"I will finish it up both effectively and as fast as I can" said EDI. With that, her hologram disappeared.

"Alright, I am going to my cabin. If anyone need my help, call me over" said Shepard. Miranda nodded and left the briefing room. Jacob saluted Shepard and left the place. Shepard was standing there for a moment soaking in thoughts about what happened that whole day.

"Damn, I need some shut eye" thought Shepard and left the room.

 **...**

 **Cerberus HQ, Cronos station.**

The Illusive man was watching the a 5 minute footage. The footage had only the recordings of the fight and their assessment of the reaper, not much information. But little did the Normandy crew know about what Illusive man's been to. But these strange monsters they faced inside were horrifying. He was surprised to see these beasts instead of the reaper indoctrinated agents. These creatures were violent and brutal in nature.

"Surely, these creatures are somehow related to the strange virus present in the reaper atmosphere"

It is true. Chandana's team already sent samples of these virus and the organic mass in containers to the place where Illusive man designated in a mini cruiser. Wherever it's been transported, the science team there were already studying the virus in an undisclosed location. The Illusive man already got a picture of the nature of this virus. But he was wondering what these strange creature were doing inside a reaper.

"Maybe we can get additional samples"

Kai leng, the cerberus operative and Illusive man's proxy came inside the room where the IM was seated.

"Sir, you called me" said leng.

"Yes I did. I need you to take a team to go to Lethe in the thorne system...At this specific coordinates" said the Illusive man handing over the data pad. He took it and viewed the information regarding his destination.

"What are we digging this time?" asked Leng.

"A derelict reaper crashed over the surface. There's a strange virus with in the reaper atmosphere. But even amidst the debris, the virus is still intact. You are to take a team and retrieve more samples and deliver it to the designated place. A science team already delivered some samples from the reaper but it's not enough" replied the IM.

"Then I'll be on my way" said Leng.

"Leng" called the IM. He turned to look at him.

"Be careful. Avoid prolonged exposure to the contamination. It's causing strange reactions to who ever is exposed to. Take top tier equipment and toxin filters with you" said the IM.

"Yes sir" saluted Leng and left the room. Then the Illusive man took a sip of his wine.

"Looks like we are facing another threat apart from the reapers" said the Illusive man who closed the footage.

 **...**

 **Citadel Embassy...**

Councilor Udina and Admiral Anderson were talking about those spartans who had been here for more than a month.

"The spartans should have joined the alliance. You know how much it would have tipped the balance in our favor?" said Udina who was furious even after it had been a month. Anderson was annoyed with him.

"Councilor, how much do we know about them. They are complete unknowns and they claim to be from another universe, that sort of thing. The look weird and and everything they have is weird. To make matters worse, they revealed themselves to be humans. You know what that means? We get our throats slit by the other councilors even if didn't know them" said Anderson keeping his face irate.

"You clearly prove that you are a soldier. But politicians like me turn even the lies as truth" said Udina. Anderson was stunned with his reply.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Anderson. Anderson wanted to divert Udina from talking about the spartans, but he too knew that those spartans are the hot news everyday.

"The other councilors still think those mysterious travelers were lying and that they are alliance splinter group" said Udina.

"Does that bother you?" asked Anderson.

"No, but let them say that. We can turn it to our advantage" said Udina with a smirk. Anderson grew restless but couldn't speak as he was confused with what Udina was implying.

"Let them be alliance splinter group. When the other councilors grab our neck, those spartans will have no choice but to side with us because if they don't answer the council, they will be in serious trouble. The turian military is enough to suppress them" said Udina.

Anderson was shocked and nodded dismissively.

"This guy's turned into a desperate wannabe!" thought Anderson, his face turning disgustful and then spoke,

"I've got a 2 syllable word for you...BULLSHIT!" yelled Anderson. But before Anderson could reply, Councilor Sparatus entered the human embassy hall.

Anderson noticed a frustration or anger in his face even though it's difficult to read his turian face expression.

"Sparatus, What a surprise! Is there anything you wished to discuss?" asked Udina calm and cool.

"Udina, You lied to me!" said Sparatus in gritted tone. Udina and Anderson were confused at his accusation.

"I don't understand" said udina.

"You said that those spartans of the UNSC don't belong to the alliance" growled Sparatus.

"That's true. They don't even belong to this place" said Udina.

"Then what's the meaning of this!" yelled Sparatus and showed him the data pad. It had information and a mini footage. Udina shot a look at Sparatus and then proceeded to look at the information.

Udina and Anderson got to see the infos regarding the arrival of 15 new ships of nowhere through a portal that was reminiscent of what the spartan's ship does. There were 2 different groups. One group had ships with sharp edges and human touch. Other group had ships that were weird looking with the bow having a shape of a whale. They were shocked to see that 3 out of 15 ships were so big like those spartans ship. Udina and Anderson shared a look of confusion.

Then they watched the footage of those ships attacking pirate ships and decimating them in a blink of an eye. Both were shocked to see that. From the way they arrived here, they can easily say that those mysterious groups were somehow associated with the spartans.

"My goodness! These people use the same technology what those spartans use" said Udina in shock.

"But what are those other ships? They don't look human" said Anderson confused.

"I will tell you. Those groups are none other than the Alliance splinter group" said Sparatus giving a grim look.

"Sparatus, that's enough!" said Udina gritting his teeth.

"You get enough with your lies!" Sparatus fired back. Udina and Anderson's face tensed.

"Those spartans and their one big ship came out of nowhere with their strange technologies. Even then it was unbelievable when they said they came from another universe, but sound logical" said Sapratus. He then turned to face the two and continued.

"But this time, a group of ships have shown itself he same way the spartans did and I am not a fool to assume them to be from the same another universe and I don't think there is anyone powerful enough to travel between universe except God. This's not a coincidence" finished Sparatus.

"What's your point Sparatus?" asked Udina raising his tone in anger.

"My point is, these people from your military somehow found an undiscovered advanced technology and build themselves in numbers and hide in the uncharted galactic region"

"That's a damning accusation!" yelled Anderson.

"No. You lied to us. If this is a display of power to threaten the council, you humans should know that we turians can annihilate you before sun dawns your sky" said Sparatus in a threatening tone.

"And what if they are an alliance splinter group?" asked Udina giving an unsymmetrical smile. Anderson's face turned stunned.

"Udina! What the hell are you doing?!" whispered Anderson in tense. Sparatus was glaring at him in anger.

"Then listen to me very carefully. I am giving you five days time to bring those newcomers and have them appear at the citadel for the trial. If you fail...Then I'll have the citadel race declare war upon the humans" said Sparatus with his face dark. Udina and Anderson were terrified with what he said.

"Councilor Sparatus, What you say is atrocious! You cannot accuse us for these unknown people. Is this a reflection of your hatred towards humans since the first contact war" asked Anderson.

"When your race joined the citadel, you signed to follow every rule to the paper. Everyone knows thse spartans are humans. Surely these new people should be humans too. We cannot let anyone roam the galaxy and do what ever they want" said Sparatus.

Udina and Anderson felt that they are in a deadlock situation. What Udina hoped for simply backfired and now he reproached himself.

"Think about that and act wisely" said Sparatus and left the embassy. Udina and Anderson became speechless. Anderson chastised the way Udina handled the situation.

"So much for your political intelligence" said Anderson to which Udina didn't answer anything.

"Now we have no choice but to send a message to those spartans. Only they can help us" said Anderson in a regretful tone. Udina was staring at Anderson with his face deadpanned.

 **...**

 **A/N: That's it. I assume you guyz know what shepard's team might have faced and why he said it's familiar. Well it looks like the Alliance is in new trouble. Next chapter will feature the UNSC and covenants.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect franchise. The story's pure fiction and AU.**

 **Chapter 16: Debriefing part II**

 **Turian military HQ, Palaven.**

General Adrien Victus and General Corinthus were standing inside the central command room, where some turian officers were working on their terminals and some moving here and there with a datapad in their hands.

There wasn't much to do as of then. No conflicts, no pirate chase or any other mishap-pens to tend to. They both were discussing something.

"General Victus, did you know that 46 pirate vessels had been ambushed yesterday over the Terminus region? No one! Not even a fleet could take out a pirate fleet of 46 ships, given those scums get their hands on military grade technology often" asked Corinthus perturbed with the information.

"I know, general. Citadel Council got the word from a salarian STG network. Turian high command received only a superficial information that those pirates were assaulted by an unknown ships" replied Victus.

"What I presume is that it might not actually be ships, but a ship" said Corinthus keeping a quizzical face.

"I don't understand, general" said Victus confused.

"What if that's only a single ship? Those spartans, hm?" asked Corinthus. Victus's face turned dead panned but his eyes expressed dread.

According to the Turian hierarchy, these spartans had created a queer yet a positive impression among their race. The technology and the powers they carried were miles away from reach. The spartans had helped many turian patrols dealing with heavy pirate activities in the terminus borders with one of their stealth vessels as the spartans themselves had nothing to do until their reinforcements arrived.

While almost all turians lived with this opinion, Asari on the other hand were terrified with those spartans especially with their technology and that big bad ass ship. They lived in the illusion that there was nothing that could surpass the destiny-ascension, but after seeing their 5km ship, they felt weak. It was good for them as there hadn't been any hostile incidents between them.

Salarians being a race more focused on science and technology, covert recons than open warfare, they cared less about the spartan's origins and more bug eyed on their techs. The salarian union managed to get a jist of their technology and was more eager to get their hands on them.

Because of this, the turians even though were perfect strangers to the spartans developed a sense of respect towards them. A month after their arrival, there hadn't been any bizarre incidents in the galaxy with the spartans which made the turians to believe that they had isolated themselves and not meddle in the affairs they have no knowledge of. But that doesn't mean the galaxy's races stay absent minded about them as signs of their activity has been monitored through out the galaxy at all times. So far so good.

"Why do you get that idea? asked Victus his face slightly turning demented.

"Only their out of proportion ship is capable of doing something like that" said Corinthus. Victus nodded dismissively and was silent for a second.

"Size is not a matter general" said Victus slowly walking towards an unoccupied terminal running his hands over the console to see the fleet status data around palaven. Then continued to talk. Corinthus's face shrunk, but was eager to listen.

"Okay, they got all those never before seen gizmos but that doesn't mean they are meaner" said Victus giving a wry smile or whatever's the turian face equivalent to smile.

"Is that some blunt contention or a fair point?" asked Corinthus folding his hands.

"I don't sound competitive! I'm clearly stating the facts" said Victus with his voice raised.

"Easy general, I didn't say you were...competitive. But I don't get your point. Those spartans showed some evidences of the place they come from and what they are truly capable of to the council. You shouldn't berate them. Besides, I feel sometimes, those people refusing to take any side was best" said Corinthus.

"Say what you will about those...uh...other universe people, Even if what they threw as the evidence is true, It doesn't mean they are almighty. Our turian military were and still the most formidable force in the galaxy and everything pales in comparison. Any day, if those spartans become hostiles, the turians can easily take them out" said Victus with a hint of pride in his voice.

Corinthus was stunned and can't believe Victus, one of the generals of the turian military was insular with his opinions.

"General, You sound like Sparatus. We are already a bad examples at making first contact. You simply underestimate others" said Corinthus.

"I don't. Actually, you do the other way around. Those outsiders have indeed proved that there are a lot of astounding possibilities with technological advancements that can be done, But we need to know our place, general" said Victus. Corinthus was becoming tired of this debate but suddenly let a faint laugh.

"Hah, Simply we shifted our focus. I said that it could those spartans who destroyed those pirate vessels" said Corinthus.

"No. Their ship cannot fight that much force even if it's big. Must be something else" said Victus.

This is when suddenly a turian officer working in a terminal to their front suddenly turned and called on the generals.

"Generals, We have an important incoming transmission, It's councilor Sparatus" said the officer. Both the generals shared a wary look for a couple of seconds and then spoke.

"Put him through" ordered Corinthus. The officer nodded and patched him through.

Then a hologram of Sparatus appeared before them from a holo projector. The two immediately crisped a salute. The sparatus reflected the same.

"Councilor, is there anything we could do for you?" asked Victus.

"General Victus, Corinthus, I have an important information that requires our entire hierarch's full attention" said Sparatus in a momentous tone.

"What it is councilor?" asked Victus. The councilor then kept his hands at the back and spoke.

"You might have heard about the pirate ambush in the terminus" said Sparatus.

"Yes sir. But the details were vague" replied Corinthus.

"Then It's time I gave you the files. I have sent you a couple of files to your terminal that has the infos regarding the incidents in the terminus in the past 12 hours" said Sparatus. Immediately the general Victus's terminal beeped.

Victus and Corinthus immediately went near the terminal. They saw the files sent by the councilor. Being Victus's terminal, it asked for his authentication. After placing his palm for DNA identification, he accessed the files. There were 2 files. He accessed the first file and there were details about the incident like the time, region, who were attacked and who attacked them.

They got to read the complete specifications of 15 unknown ships belonging to 2 groups that destroyed 46 pirate vessels in just about 10 minutes, something that's imaginary. Corinthus and Victus face turned odious. They couldn't believe what they read.

Then Victus accessed the 2nd file and it had video log. He played the video.

The video showed an empty space, but suddenly bright bluish white circular energy vortex formed and out came 15 ships out of which 3 where huge. But just as the first file mentioned, there were 2 different fleet. The biggest ones read more than 5 kms and smallest ones read almost 600 meters still bigger than their military cruiser and close to low end dreadnoughts.

Then in just after few minutes, their ships were attacked by 46 pirate vessels composed of cruisers. But what happened next made the generals to feel the cyclone in their heads. The unknown fleet decimated the pirate ships in just 8 minutes. Their weapons tore through the pirate vessels like a paper and there were those energy projectiles which pulverized the ships one behind the other.

On one end, it was a display of power and on the flip side, it's the most brutal onslaught. The video then ended.

General Victus and Corinthus were stunned and their face turned gruesome. They noticed one thing, the way they appeared was similar to those spartan's ship, slipspace as what they called it. This sowed a lot of doubts in them.

The generals turned and walked near the councilor's hologram.

"Did you see everything? What do you think?" asked Sparatus.

"Never seen ships like these that can do something like...THIS! But they are familiar" said Corinthus.

"Yes, these ships carry technology similar to those spartan's ship, but...how's that possible!?" asked Victus, dull faced.

"Let me explain before you crack your head, generals. Those ships and their owners are definitely associated with the spartans of UNSC. Because, the same UNSC names are present in some of those ships" explained Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus felt the situation even more execrable.

"Councilor, if I remember correctly, those spartans mentioned that they came to our galaxy from their universe through an accident. Does that mean thos-.." said Corinthus, interrupted by Sparatus.

"If it were one ship, It could have been quite plausible with that logic. But after seeing this much ships, I'm not about to believe their lies" said Sparatus. Both the generals were wondering why did he came to such a conclusion.

 **...**

 **Citadel, Council room (Sparatus POV)...**

Sparatus was conversing with the two turian generals at the palaven central command. Sparatus was currently in the council common room with 2 turian holograms in front of him.

"But sir, what prompted you to come to such a conclusion?" asked Victus confused.

"It's simple general. I neither believe what they said nor the evidences they showed the council" said Sparatus with opprobrium.

"But Councilor, their technology speaks otherwise. They don't have anything like we do" said Corinthus with confusion.

"I have heard enough of that statement, general. It not difficult to fabricate your identity. As for their technology...This galaxy is large generals. You should know that there are still thousands and thousands of uncharted systems left unexplored, let alone the galactic borders like the 'Veil' " said Sparatus.

"You mean to say that they come from someplace like that?" asked Victus.

"Yes. And those spartans were humans, but genetically augmented which itself against the council laws. These alliance people must have sent a group of humans into an uncharted space to secretly develop new technologies and unlawful research to possibly escape the council's influence" said Sparatus with disgust.

"Sorry to say this councilor, but it's an assumption. We cannot draw formal conclusion with this" said Corinthus. Sparatus felt irate for telling he simply assumed, but hid the anger and gave a turian equivalent of smirk.

"Respected generals, Humans were always the most bigotry, self centered bastards! Coupled with the fact that they occupy 61 worlds, the highest ever compared to our roughly 30 worlds. Some of their worlds lie in the regions apart from council jurisdiction, they can do almost anything under our nose" said Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus couldn't believe Sparatus was so resolved in this matter. They could possibly see where this conversation was heading to.

"So, what has the council decided to do?" asked Victus.

"I don't know about the others, but I have made a decision. Now listen up carefully" said Sparatus. The generals felt as something big was gonna be put on the table.

"Send the word to other worlds and ask them to keep their defense fleet in each planet, refit for engagement. Those spartans have 5 days to explain themselves" said Sparatus.

"Wait, engagement? You mean war! don't you?" asked Corinthus wide eyed in fear.

"Sir, isn't this another first contact situation? Maybe this war idea is not so brilliant" warned Victus.

"That's why it's better those strangers explain themselves in the citadel. I'm gonna send this message through the extranet. The sooner they do, the better, or it's the system's alliance that's gonna face the music" said Sparatus.

Victus and Corinthus feel a certain flaw in his assumptions. Deep inside, they both wanted this not to happen for 2 reasons. First being, they don't trust Sparatus's judgement, mostly Corinthus because of it's irrationality. Second being, they don't know anything about them and charging against an enemy blindly will be fatal.

They will still consider this first by consulting the Primarch as he's the ultimate leader of the turian hierarchy. If he say's no, then no. The current turian Primarch is Fedorian.

"Alright councilor, we'll do what we can. But still it's not too late to revise your decision" said Corinthus. With that, the conversation ended and then the comm was closed, the holograms vanished. Sparatus stood there in silence and then let out a sigh and then left the room.

 **...**

 **Spartans base planet, Titan nebula, un-named system...**

It's been 12 hours and the UNSC and Separatists people from the UNSC Infinity, Sanghelli CAS class assault carriers - _Shadow of Intent_ and _Flaming Spirit_ have settled themselves in the new base, the spartans have built for their mission. The personnel were spread across in the base with the help of fire team Majestic and remaining ODST ghost team, N'tho sraom and U'ze Taham.

The commanding officers are currently being debriefed by the Blue team and Cortana in the base's underground CIC regarding the situation right from the beginning.

Cortana finished explaining how they got here and what prompted them to get to this unknown place. So far, they knew that this galaxy is Milkyway and that they are in another universe. Now the Masterchief John-117 decided to do the remaining explanation about what they had learned so far.

"Cortana explained everything about this place. It's time to tell you what we learned here in the one month time" Chief started to speak and everyone sharpened their attention. Then chief asked cortana to bring the hologram of a mass relay above the table. Everyone got to see rotating image of the tuning fork shaped object with spinning gyroscope at the rear end with a bright core.

When Infinity and Arbiter's fleet engaged the pirates, through the codex retrieved from one of their ships, they managed to get a glimpse of this galaxy's races and the technology these people used.

"Well, I hope you are familiar with this object, if you had read the codex" said Chief.

"We do. This is what the people of this galaxy call 'Mass relay', one that use dark energy to manipulate mass of an object" said Lasky after recalling what he read in the codex.

"Indeed. Isn't those what the people of this galaxy use for FTL?" asked Carter.

"Yes commander. There are mass relays spread across the galaxy in several star systems" said Chief with the hologram shifting to the milky way with several red markers indicating systems with mass relays.

"But the most intriguing part is the need for an element of mass number -0 that is created by solid surfaces exposed to supernova radiation storm. It's something totally unheard of!" said Halsey her face curious.

"It's element zero or eezo as you know it. It can increase or decrease mass with electric current. It's very rare in this galaxy" explained Kelly.

"And it also clearly shows that this galaxy races are very much dependent on them. We learned how they use this element in almost every aspect of their life" voiced Arbiter who too had read the codex.

"Also every single race in this galaxy seems to revere a 50,000 year old race they call the 'Protheans' and base their technology by reverse engineering their techs" said Palmer.

"Not just that, but some races even based their religion around them" said Linda. For a moment, everyone felt irate and disgusted, even the Arbiter and R'tas on hearing this and there is a reason to it.

This very much reminded everyone about how the covenant formed their religion around the worshiping of forerunners. The San-Shayuum or the prophets as called by humans fabricated false preaching and inducted the other races to form the covenant faction and believe that they were the inheritors of forerunners. This misguided belief was what triggered the 30 year human covenant war that not only caused military or economic downfall but also loss of morale. But when the Sanghelli learned the truth, soon some other races followed suit and allied with humanity and banished the covenant. 5 years after then, the relation ship had quite reconciled.

Seeing the races of this galaxy doing the same raised some concerns, but surprisingly there had not been any war on large scale in the name of religion. Humans only had a first contact war with the race called the turians and that too was settled by this citadel council before it could escalate.

"This citadel council we read about seems to be extremists in my opinion. They had carefully fabricated laws to secure their primacy in the galaxy, like fleet strength, ship size even they had banished AI's!?" asked Lasky in a dismissive tone.

"Huh, most of the races are naive, that's the truth. If you had read the Quarian-geth war in the codex, you know what I mean. The Quarians attacked their creations just because their dumb AI's turned smart" said Fred with a chuckle.

"The more things they seem different, the more they appear same. This galaxy may have humans, our own! But the evolutionary divergence is completely digressive from ours. One other proof that we are in alternate universe. Hence, me and my colleague, Dr. Brown's theory are right" said Halsey which brought everyone's attention. They were brooding at her.

"What theories doctor?" asked Lasky.

"Myself and Dr. Howard brown from Institute of advanced research in theoretical physics at Draco III, postulated the existence of alternate and parallel realities and even published in journals 33 years back. Even amidst tons of criticism, it was well received in the scientific community" said Halsey recalling her old memories with a smile.

"So, it's not even a great surprise to you, that we are in a same yet unknown place?" asked SSgt. Marcus.

"No. My theories have been proven true. It's that simple" replied Halsey in calm and cool tone.

"Back to the topic at hand...Chief, what exactly have you found here?" asked Lasky getting to the point.

"To answer that, I need to ask you this. Did you people read about the 'Battle of citadel' which occurred in 2183? Where the citadel was attacked by these geth army and one big mysterious ship?" asked Linda.

"Yes, we came across those information. Even there was an image of that ship" said Arbiter whose face turned confused and intrigued, " It was deep blue and looked very...Different, almost the color and texture of our ships" said Arbiter.

"To be precise, It had the appearance of the earth based cuttle fish. They classified it as a dreadnought belonging to those geth, even named it...uh...yeah...'Sovereign'" said Palmer. Others nodded in acknowledgment.

"That's not a geth dreadnought as what this whole galaxy believes. It's a 'Reaper' " said Chief in a serious tone as he had reached the crux of this whole conversation. Others blinked in confusion and glanced at one another.

"Reaper!?" asked Jorge

"Yes. It's a sentient AI star ship" said Chief which stunned everyone other than the blue team. It was confounding. This was the moment they felt something cardinal, yet to come, the subtle feeling that they had hit upon a reason to be here.

"I don't get it. You mean an alien race called the 'Reapers' who designed that ship, right?" asked Lasky.

"No, That ship IS the Reaper, a sentient AI vessel of enormous power" said Chief in a pressing tone.

They couldn't believe what they just heard. An artificially living ship!...they had never heard anything weird like this apart from the forerunners. Halsey was the most stupefied in the CIC. She was both astounded and bewildered.

"An artificial construct vessel? If it's a construct, then who actually built it!?" exclaimed R'tas.

"No one knows. The Reapers are nothing but a myth to this galaxy. But there is one man who quite know the mysteries surrounding the reapers to a degree" said Fred.

"Who is that?" eagerly asked Lasky. Then chief used his left arm mini holo-computer to access the files on shepard and bring his image above the table. Everyone's eyes turned to that image of a person whose face was in his 30's. He wore an armor that had a silver-aluminium finish in the torso part and full black clad in the hands and lower body ( **Cerberus Ajax armor).**

"This is commander Shepard, a soldier of the N7 division of the human systems alliance. I hope you know of the human government in this milky way" said Chief.

"We do. I should say so, though not on our level, still humanity here has achieved a lot in a short time. But from what we learned of the technological growth of each and every race in this galaxy, Humans and others had evolved in a same path. They all had made same level of achievements, though some did early on in the history like these Asari and Salarians" said Halsey. That grabbed everyone's attention. The blue team and Cortana knew she made a correct statement.

"You are right doctor and there is a reason to it" said Chief. Everyone then listened to what he had to say. Chief then spoke,

"In the one month time, we had our introduction with the citadel council. First we met an alliance officer at the citadel, Admiral David Anderson. He was the one who told us about commander Shepard and the peripheral information on the reapers" said Chief.

He then went on to explain Shepard's mission to hunt down a rogue turian spectre named Saren and then his interaction with a prothean beacon. The realization of the nature of Saren's ship, 'Sovereign' as a reaper followed by the truth about the reapers after conversing with Sovereign, finally defeating it with the help of the human fleet at the citadel.

Chief stopped for a moment to allow others to absorb the information. Those who were seated in the CIC felt like they listening to a horror sci-fi movie. There was a moment of silence and everyone's face frowned.

"So, this ship 'Sovereign' is a reaper, one of the millions of similar AI ships that destroyed all lives in the galaxy in the last 50,000 years" said Jorge unnervingly. Of course it was something alarming, learning of the existence of machine race that kills everything is truly a disconcerting knowledge.

"These beacons created by the Protheans, allowed this human commander Shepard to learn the true nature of the reapers?" said the Arbiter.

"Yes, but the council denied his claim stating, he was simply hallucinating and that the ship was nothing more than a geth dreadnought" said Kelly. This really made them feel disgusted about the council of their ignorance. If the reapers are a greater threat, then the council should have listened to him.

"The protheans faced the reapers 50,000 years ago. Did he know why the reapers do this?" asked Carter.

"On his conversation with the Sovereign during his mission 2 years back, it told that the reapers had been harvesting intelligent life once in every 50,000 years. This had been happening for a long long time. To speed up the process of harvest, they constructed these mass relays and Citadel by which the intelligent species would base their technology" said Cortana who wished to explain that part.

"You say, as if these reapers wanted the civilizations to evolve in that way" said Palmer with doubt

"Like a trap. Wait! So these Protheans were not the engineers of these mass relays or the citadel like what's given in the codex!?" asked Lasky confused, who also understood the logic behind reapers move.

"Exactly. Before we made our way to the citadel, Cortana managed to use our ship's hardware interface module to access the relay's deep hidden computer which is normally inaccessible" said Chief from where Cortana picked up.

"The moment I interacted with the computer, I was able to instantly connect to the entire mass relay network in the galaxy. The relays have their unique way of communication at super luminal speeds and are connected to one another in a sequence and that sequence finally ends at this place" finished Cortana who brought up the image of a large space station with 5 arms like a flower's petals and also a circular ring at the end from where the arms branch. As the others had seen this in the codex, they identified it as the citadel station.

"The Citadel? If the network ends there, you mean to say that the citadel itself is-.." asked Halsey immediately cut by Cortana.

"Yes doc, The Citadel itself is a mass relay and no one knows it. Unfortunately, no one in this galaxy knew anything about the mass relays or the citadel's origins except Commander Shepard" replied Cortana.

After explaining about Shepard, everyone including the Arbiter and R'tas began to respect him and gave him credit to his tenacity and bravery for fighting an unmatched enemy while all others dwell in delusion.

Then Chief continued where Cortana left.

"The Asari race were the first to discover Prothean ruins, mass relays and the citadel several thousand years ago. Based on just those studies, they assumed that the mass relays and citadel were prothean tech" said Chief.

That was quite a wrap up for everyone. One thing was that everyone found these prothean race similar to the forerunners having a galaxy spanning empire. But what they found concerning was that, unlike them in their universe, this universe milky way races had blindly followed the prothean's footsteps. Everything, every single race developed were simply reverse engineered prothean technology and most odd thing of all was that all the races had advanced the same way and that too in same short span of time, even if the age of revolution was never in the same date for all the races.

"But if you look closely at the galactic civilization's sphere of influence..." spoke Kelly bringing back the hologram of the milky way with the highlighted systems occupied, "There are thousands and thousands of star systems that can support life, still left uncharted" said Kelly. Others can see the uncharted systems highlighted with blue markers.

"What's the approximate average number of worlds occupied by each race?" asked Arbiter.

"Around 35 to 45. Humans occupy the highest, 61" said Cortana. Others were intrigued but still unimpressed because UNSC itself colonized 800 worlds in the Orion arm.

"Hah, that's no where near us! But...You are right, lot of systems are unexplored" said Marcus.

"Only the clusters that possess a mass relay are colonized by any race, that's why their numbers dwindle" said Chief.

"Even if they don't have mass relays, they have developed conventional FTL based on their principles. Why can't they send ships to uncharted worlds?" asked Carter. Others acknowledged his query.

"Now commander, that's a question!" said Fred with a chuckle which earned a smirk form Carter.

"It's simple commander. Their use of FTL needs extensive amounts of element zero which is quite rare here, this will bring the colonization costs to astronomical levels if they use conventional FTL above a certain limit" said Chief.

"That's logical" said Halsey, to which other looked at her.

"Even their weapons need this element zero combined with it's need for FTL? They had limited the size of their ships according to their treaty of 'Farixen'. Even their dreadnought is just a kilometer long, a little less than our light cruisers" said Halsey.

"Except this Asari made 2km long ship called 'Destiny Ascention' "

"Why do they depend themselves totally on this element zero? Didn't they discover some other means of FTL, like we did with slipspace? Because our ships were able to jump into slipspace even in this...another universe" asked Palmer with acute logical sense.

"Yes! Being an extra dimension, it's accessible anywhere. Then why do they limit themselves to this extent" asked Lasky, his face muddled.

"If they hadn't discovered the mass effect technology, maybe in at least 2 century time span, they might have discovered any other way of FTL. But just after entering the space age, they eventually discovered the mass effect, so why waste time make cheese from milk when you already have one made ready" said Cortana raising her eyebrow folding her hands. Others were silent for a moment. They were trying to decipher this whole puzzle.

"The way I see it, The people here simply assumed that there's nothing beyond what the protheans had in store. They assumed that by claiming those, they are the most advanced. A state of -..." said Jorge

"Technological stagnation. No significant advancements made after becoming space faring. It is quite trouble some" finished Arbiter. Jorge acknowledged him.

"Well, that makes sense of every thing we read in the codex" said Lasky. With that they had a clarity of how things play out here.

"But what's the reaper's role here? Why would they construct these relays, citadel and purge the galaxy of all life? Why did they kill the protheans?" asked Marcus who was bewildered with these reapers just like the others.

"I am sorry Marcus, but this is as far as we learned until your arrival. Still these reapers are an enigma. there's more to it than meets the eye" said Chief which frowned Marcus as there were no answers to that.

"We also forgot to tell you something" said Linda, which brought everyone's attention.

"What is it?" asked Lasky.

"In the one month time, This whole galaxy knows of our presence. Our first visit was with the citadel council and then to Earth...This universe's Earth. We even met Commander Shepard" said Linda.

This news was like a rock thrown on their head. Meeting the unknown people has a lot of unpredictable consequences. First, the hostile treatment, second being the technology. Classified information and potential knowledge that can turn the tables to a disadvantage and also the harms that can come if it ever fall in to the wrong hands.

Lasky was taken back by this revelation and felt slightly distressed but he knew blue team and Cortana would never be rash. After all, they are legendary soldiers.

"Well, I hope-..." stumbled Lasky

"Don't worry Captain. We didn't give out classified Information, just what is enough to make them believe that we don't belong to this place. Though, I gotta tell you. The whole galaxy is wary of our presence. They don't even know that we have a base here" said Chief. Everyone felt relieved on hearing that.

"Spartan, I think we know enough of this place. But you previously mentioned that this human, Shepard said the reapers had been slaughtering all the races every 50,000 years for a long time. Is this the mass extinction event the librarian saw as a vision?" asked Arbiter, hitting the crux.

"Yes! I was wondering the same. Chief, was that the librarian saw?" asked Lasky hastily. Chief glanced at them for a moment.

"Yes" replied Chief. It was then everyone truly understood, what was going on. There was silence for few seconds and then Lasky spoke.

"Now I think it's clear what's really going on" said Lasky who then stood up and walked out of the chair.

"This galaxy suffers a mass extinction once in every 50,000 years. But by unknown means, a signal was sent to our universe through a portal we found in the lagoon nebula. Now with cross reference to what the blue team and Cortana had learned here, Its the reapers who were causing this and for unknown reasons. Am I right?" asked Lasky turning to look at everyone looking for a response. Nobody said anything, but looked at him as if they all understood and he acknowledged it.

"Still, One more question. What's our role here?" asked Palmer. This drew a glance from the others. In fact, that was the question on everyone's mind as of then. The blue team exchanged a brief look with everyone.

When Iridescent's monitor asked the blue team and Cortana to look into this as a favor to the librarian, They hesitated for a bit as this would prompt the UNSC to speculate that the blue team had gone AWOL.

But the spartans knew their role, being the 'Sword and Shield' for humanity. When they were trained as kids, CPO Mendez taught them not only about team work to win, but something even more important, something that basically differentiates a soldier and a killer, 'The value of Life'. Soldiers know the value of life, that's the reason a soldier dies to save millions of that precious life. As Lasky once said to Chief at Infinity, 'Soldiers are not machines, we are just people'.

Even though Soldier's duty is to follow orders, Mendez himself once told that 'A soldier is not someone who always blindly follows orders. Sometimes, he can make decisions that can out smart the orders given'. Chief did it once to save humanity from the Didact. The blue team never forgot his teachings.

It was based on those instincts, Chief and by extension, his team agreed to look into this even without informing the UNSC HIGHCOM, because they had their doubts if the UNSC would consider this at least with a pinch of salt or be shelved by ONI's interference, but they can't be blamed as the UNSC is busy in repelling the Covenant remnants, Insurrectionists and also restoration of New phoenix city after Didact composed the entire city population including several other glassed colonies. Because of those reason, the blue team and Cortana decided to take the matter at hand, but still not before informing the UNSC.

Now blue team and Cortana were thinking how to respond to this question. Chief took his time to speak while other were looking at him for a response. He then decided to handle the question at best.

"Captain Lasky, You are our commanding officer. It's not our place to decide what to do. But still the reason me and my team chose to investigate this was purely out of our instincts as soldiers. We couldn't let it slide after the knowledge of a mass extinction was bestowed upon us" said Chief dragging words to convince the others. He knew this could go sideways, but he wanted to help.

Lasky and Arbiter were able to instantly grasp the spartan's implication having known him for long time. And both knew that chief's words are of pure honesty, not some flattery attempt.

"Well, I don't quite understand what do mean by that, Chief" said Carter raising his eyebrow.

"We could help this galaxy, help them fight the reapers" said Chief bluntly. Apart from Lasky and Arbiter, other were stunned at his proposition.

Though they respect the spartan II soldiers in general for their service in the wars, still they felt helping an unknown people against a mass extinction by these reapers as madness and there are plausible reasons for that.

"Chief, while I appreciate your propensity to help, you are missing the facts" said Lasky whose face was vacillating in dilemma.

"First, Lord hood sent us to search and rescue your team and report our findings to the HIGHCOM. Second, even if we want to help this galaxy against the reapers, we don't know how much they are in force, besides we don't have enough numbers. Third, What's is the probability that the reaper's are gonna show? You know we can't stay here for a long time" said Lasky, though he hated to raise objection to the very spartan who saved his life years back.

The blue team knew the captain was stating facts and was totally acceptable.

"Not to mention that we are not obligated to help them. Perhaps, this is not even our place, why should we even meddle? Why don't we find a way out of this place?" said Palmer who too raised her concerns.

"Also, we are already in a fight with insurrectionists and the covenant remnants. If we lose Infinity and her fleet along with Arbiters fleet, that would be a crippling loss for us" said Halsey. While Halsey was truly fascinated with the findings, she too need to be practical at this stage.

The blue team had took their time to listen to everyone's qualms. They knew that they were reasonable concerns. But Chief and his team came here at their own risk and discretion. And Chief never puts anyone at the knife edge, preferring himself to take the risk willingly.

"While I understand the facts being stated, You should be aware of this" said Chief, changing his posture.

"Sooner or later, we would have definitely found the portal anyway and trace the signal here even if we had chosen to ignore this for now. Also this is a significant discovery for us. Like it or not, Our universe, the place we come from is involved. It was a portal from 'Our' galaxy that led us to this alternate reality" said Chief in a serious tone.

"Or else, one day surely we would have learned of the forerunner's involvement in this matter and finally do the same what we did now" said Fred.

"Someone, some ancient race older than the forerunner's had built that portal and definitely those who did must be here. Besides, imagine what would happen, if any hostile force from this galaxy managed to find a portal to our universe and bring a war along with them?" said Kelly.

"We suspect that those who built the portal and traveled to this universe sent a signal from here. They wanted us to know of the mass extinction event. And it wasn't the first time. The signal had been recorded 3 times. The forerunners wanted to do something about it but they couldn't because of the flood. We have come where no one had before" said Linda.

This was when, they analyzed the strength of their arguments. They saw the weight in those points made by the blue team. Slowly they started to realize the inevitable truth.

"Those are undeniable points you made, blue team. What you say is true, while we made our assessment, your's carry more weight to it" said Lasky, then turning to the others, "Surely the place we come from is involved in this matter like it or not" said Lasky who face now expressed clarity and resolution.

"Thank you sir. Even if helping the galaxy is not a priority, we need to find who sent the signal to our galaxy and definitely learn their motives and make sure they are not a threat to our place"

"Myself and R'tas agree with the spartans. We need to find the missing link between this place and ours" said Arbiter who voiced his support.

"Me too" said Marcus.

"Count me in. I agree with the blue team" said Jorge.

"It may be hard to be far from our place, but this is really important. John is right, this may be a significant discovery for humanity, but we need to make sure, whatever lies here is not a threat to us in our place" said Halsey and Commander Carter acknowledged the same.

Lasky was looking at everyone who voiced their opinion and found everyone supporting the blue team. Palmer simply shrugged her shoulder in uncertainty looking at the captain. Lasky finally made his decision. Of course, he trusts the chief's judgement as it helped him save the human race once again from a rogue forerunner. Lasky holds a special place of respect to the Master chief, so he decided to help the blue team. He sighed a bit and spoke.

"Alright, I have made my decision. Let's carry on with the proposition. Also most importantly, we'll unravel the mysteries surrounding the portal and who ever sent the signal. This could even be a turning point for all the races in our galaxy" said Lasky which brought quite a cheer among those present.

"So blue team, how much do we know about the enemy?" asked Lasky.

"At present we have no assessment, captain. But Commander Shepard is currently on a mission to fight the collectors, a slave race to the reapers who had been abducting humans from their colonies" said Cortana who spoke after quite a long time.

"Why would the reapers show interest in humans?" asked Halsey confused.

"At present, we have no idea. We expect Shepard, to give intel on the reapers once he's done with the collectors. Also we didn't tell anyone of our purpose. We told them that we came here by a accident" replied Fred.

"Though I must warn you. There's a splinter human organization called 'Cerberus'. They are alien extremists. Everything they do in the name of humanity's greater good are nothing but atrocities" said Cortana.

This very much reminded them of the Insurrectionists, who formed a rebel organization called the Unified Rebel Front who are vehemently against the UEG and UNSC.

"Like the Insurrectionists?" asked Marcus.

"While they are against the humans themselves, Cerberus is against the alien races, especially the council. They hold a view of themselves as humanity's perfection" said Cortana.

"In other words, traitors. They are more dangerous than the enemies. They must be eradicated" said R'tas.

"Maybe, but right now we cannot do anything. Because Shepard is using Cerberus's resources to hunt down the collectors" said Chief. This caused quite a stir.

"Shepard's working with the splinter group!? Then how can we trust him?" asked Palmer. Others had the same concern.

"Shepard hates cerberus to the core and has all reasons to. But he doesn't have a choice as Cerberus is the only party who had pooled their resources in fighting the collectors. Shepard is merely using their resources to help humanity" said Cortana.

"What about the Council? Won't they help?" asked Halsey.

"The council denies the existence of collectors and calls them myths just like they do with the reapers. They are not willing to spend resources on that" said Chief. Now they all felt disgusted and even more irritated with the council's narrow minded attitude.

"This council starts to make me sick. They say they are the overseers but don't care about anyone" detested Marcus.

"So Shepard's practically fighting alone in this war?" asked Jorge.

"No, he had formed an impressive team composed of different races, those who believe only Shepard and his judgements" said Kelly.

"If the reaper's come unannounced, the council must accept the fact that they had been ignorant and should stand together with the rest of the galaxy in the fight" said Arbiter.

"Chief, your team had been to the earth here. What's it like?" asked Carter. Now matter where, Humans always looked earth as their birthplace, cradle of human civilization.

"No different from ours. Even we met with human officers there and told the same what we shared with the council. In fact, it was not our intention to go to earth, but we had to save a few human colonists from an attack after receiving their distress call. Then we had to transport the security force to earth for their debriefing. That's how we saw earth" said Fred.

"Alright, So now that we have planned what to do, What's the next step?" asked Palmer.

"We have to wait until Shepard finish his mission with the collectors. Then we can get all the necessary information on the reapers" said Chief. Others acknowledged it.

"Another thing, Apart from Shepard, no one knows the true nature of our mission and let it be that way. Let the galaxy assume that we are here by an accident and we can also trust Shepard on his discretion" said Kelly.

"I too agree with Kelly. This galaxy doesn't need to know why we are here" said Jorge.

"Alright, until then we will stay here, resume our normal activities. We can decide our next move after commander Shepard and his team arrive. Mean while, We can circulate everything we talked about to every single personnel in all of our ships and in the base. They need to know what's going on" said Lasky.

"I'll see to it captain" said Cortana, to which he nodded and once again spoke,

"Fine, then this council is over. Let's leave this place" said Lasky.

"Spartan-087, 058 and 104 will escort you to your quarters" said Chief to the others and waved his team to escort them.

They nodded and helped them get off the CIC. First it was Fred, Kelly and Linda followed by Lasky and the others with Halsey being the last.

"Doctor Halsey" called on Chief. She turned back to look at him.

"Yes John?" asked Halsey. Before saying anything, he went near the pedestal to retrieve the AI chip and place it in the helmet and her successful interface was shown with a blink in his helmet.

Then he went near the doctor.

"Me and Cortana would like to converse with you privately" said Chief. As others had left the CIC, Halsey drew a relaxed smile in her face to see the spartan 117 after a very long time. Even after their first meeting here, it had been a tense situation, so she couldn't find time even to smile at her spartans, but now she does.

"Of course. Actually, even I too wanted to talk to you about a lot of things. Things I have missed in the mean time. Also you definitely need to tell me how you got that strange ship and your new armor, including how Cortana got cured of rampancy. Everything from the scratch. Its been a long time since I last saw your face" said Halsey. Chief let out a faint smirk inside.

"Oh! Isn't she the curious one?" chuckled Cortana.

"And the one I personally trust like I trust my closest allies" Chief mentally responded to which Cortana acknowledged with a green light.

"Sure, but we'll talk in your personal quarters. I will escort you myself" said Chief to which she nodded with a faint smile.

Then Chief and Halsey walked their way to the elevator to go to Halsey's quarters.

While walking, John once again felt strange, a preceding echo rides his mind...then,

 _There was chaos everywhere, alternating energy streaks flying in the sky without a break._

 _ **He**_ _saw horrid creatures running at him._ _ **He**_ _was shooting them with a particle rifle, "My lord, They are everywhere_ _ **!"**_ _someone yelling at_ _ **Him.**_

 _ **He**_ _was standing at a place what appeared as a starship's bridge, "_ _ **Send the fighters to the surface. Finally we clogged their defenses after 53 years" He**_ _said looking at someone standing before him._

 _And everything went blank and returned to the present._

Chief grunted suddenly which alarmed both Cortana and Halsey who were worried after he let out a grunt that expressed pain. He saw and even felt incidents as if he was there just for 5 seconds. He bent his body down slightly instantly gripping the wall besides him and the other hand gripping his right knee for balance. His breathing was quite erratic.

"Chief! Your vitals-...What happened!?" asked Cortana in a brief tense.

"John! What is it?" asked Halsey placing her left hand to his right shoulder trying to ease him. Chief was still in the same stance trying to hold himself together.

After a brief 8 seconds later, he regained his stiff composure, back to normal.

"Shit, not again!" thought Chief. Cortana managed to intercept his thoughts and she instantly understood his reference.

"Chief, was that-..."

"We'll talk about this in Halsey's quarters" interrupted Chief. But he could mentally picture Cortana's worry. Cortana reluctantly agreed to what he said.

"John, what happened?" asked Halsey again with a worry. He sighed a bit and replied after calming his breath.

"A head ache" said Chief which made Halsey to narrow her eyes in suspicion.

"Head ache? Well, that's totally unusual. How long have you been experiencing this?" asked Halsey. John took a moment to respond.

"It would be better to talk in your quarters" said Chief like he meant it. Halsey was staring at him in confusion but decided to let him have his way.

"Alright, we'll go our quarters then figure it out" said Halsey. Chief nodded in approval. Halsey couldn't see John's face expression. If so, John felt exhausted. Maybe he needed doctor Halsey's expertise in helping him. He knew Halsey had the ability to adapt to any knowledge, so he had his hopes.

Then both Chief and Halsey walked slowly to the small stairs, turned left which led to the elevator.

 **...**

 **Asari prison chambers, City of Athame, Thessia...**

Captain Nylis T' halyt, commander of infamous Asari 4th fleet, was seated in a couch in a 12ft x 12ft metal room with just one entrance which was sealed with a powerful mass effect field containment barrier, transparent in violet color.

"By the goddess! Why the fu**! I never thought even our own people could be ignorant bit****!...They don't believe me!...They think I'm mad!...They think I'm a-...!" those were the thoughts in her mind while her face expressed extreme anger and fear.

When an Asari turn angry, automatically a biotic aura surround them uncontrollably. But Nylis was fitted with biotic inhibitor. So she's nothing more than a ordinary individual. She was wearing a simple black dress completely covered, contrary to the officer dress.

Her thoughts were abruptly halted by an asari officer appearing before her room.

"Nylis T' halyt?" the officer called on. She turned to look at her with utmost disgust.

"The captain wanted you to come" said the officer and deactivated the barrier. Nylis didn't say anything but was escorted by the officer to the captain.

Finally Nylis met with the new captain of the 4th fleet, captain Rillian pratora.

"Captain Nylis T' halyt" greeted Rillian.

"What do you want?" asked Nylis gritting her teeth. Rillian sighed a bit for her bad mannerism but decided to never mind.

"You know why you are here, rotting in prison" asked Rillian in a scornful tone.

"You people are fools! I presented you an evidence to help everyone and this is how the Matriarch returns the favor" said Nylis pressing her voice in anger.

"Don't take that tone with me. Coz you are not an officer anymore. You have been stripped of your military authority" said Rillian.

"That's why you came here? To mock me?" asked Nylis.

"You were on an illegal mission with those newcomers to fight a mythical enemy and you didn't stop with that" said Rillain now turning to see her.

"You used the meld to show the evidence to the people of your home world, Cyone and in turn causing a massive civil unrest" said Rillian.

"I didn't spread lies. It's the truth. The collectors, the Reapers...Commander Shepard was right all the time" said Nylis rushing up to her in anger only to be restrained by the officer.

"Because of your actions, Cyone became a mess. It took us a month to set things right. You were a pain in the ass! You were supposed to share sensitive intel with the highest authority, instead you took matters in your hand" said Rillian, now her voice turned frustrated.

"Like I said, You people are fools. You will never understand the truth and because of your stupidity, you are gonna get everyone killed when the reapers show at our doorstep" said Nylis. Now Rillian lost her cool.

"Listen, I am not here to listen to your lunatic blabber. The top brass decided what to do with you. You single handedly caused a political and civil unrest in a colony world. And for your actions and to prevent your further approach on this issue, You will have to spend the rest of your days in this prison" Nylis was stunned in disbelief. Rillian turned to look at Nylis.

"You were in fact lucky, Or else, you would have been sentenced to death for you actions, thanks to your military background and reputation" said Rillain giving a smirk. She then prepared to leave the prison facility. Nylis flew in anger while the other officer dragged her away to her prison.

"YOU BIGOTED, SELF CENTERED-..."yelled Nylis being dragged to her prison.

Rillian Pratora, the newly appointed commander of the fourth fleet left the facility.

 **...**

 **Thorne system, Lethe (Mnemosyne's satellite)...**

A cerberus cruiser approached Lethe, a moon that orbits the brown dwarf Mnemosyne.

"Lt. Leng, We are in position above the moon" said the helmsman of the cruiser.

Kai leng, a cerberus agent was sent by the Illusive man to retrieve the contaminant samples from the crashed reaper. He was not sent alone, but along with several cerberus heavy infantry loaded with explosives and heavy guns.

"Get a rough map of the terrain in these coordinates and send it to my omni-tool" said Leng.

"Yes sir" replied the Helm and did exactly as ordered. Then Leng's omni-tool beeped and he accessed the file. An image was projected from it and Leng got to see the terrain map of the specific region.

"Good" thought Leng and went to the crew quarters to talk with his soldiers.

The soldiers were already with armor, but unarmed. After Leng came to see them, they stood and looked at him in silence awaiting orders.

"We have arrived at the location Illusive man sent us to. Lock and load yourself and wait at the hanger" said Leng.

"Yes sir" said the soldiers in unison.

He then went to the armory to load with the required weapons including his biotic katana. Leng, after few minutes went to the hanger to see 15 soldiers ready for combat.

Leng then called the helm,

"Helm, bring the cruiser to the upper atmosphere We'll reach the surface with the troop shuttle" said Leng.

"Yes Lieutenant. Bringing the ship into the atmosphere" said the helm as the cruiser slowly entered Lethe's atmosphere.

"Alright people! This is an extremely sensitive mission and the orders come directly from the king fish. So it's our job not to screw this. So keep your eyes and ears sharp and watch your 360" said Leng to which the soldiers barked in unison.

Then Leng and 15 other soldiers boarded 2 shuttles and prepared to leave.

As the cruiser's bay door opened, the shuttles flew of the ship and made its way to the surface.

The shuttle reached the visible region past the clouds and managed to barely see the surface.

"Sir, you need to look at this" said the shuttle pilot. Leng went to see what the pilot had to show him. At the cockpit, he managed to see through the shuttle window at the surface and turned bug eyed.

At the surface, at the given coordinates, there was a large area covered with sage colored haze beyond the reaper's crash radius.

"What the hell?" murmured Leng.

"Bring the shuttle just outside the cloud" said Leng. The pilot acknowledged and brought the shuttle to the surface just outside the haze .

After touching the ground, the shuttle doors opened. Kai leng and the 15 soldiers came out with a single portable container carried by a soldier. The shuttle stayed there and everyone began to load themselves with the weapons.

"What the hell is this?" asked one soldier.

"My scanners are reading a lot of biological microbes in the air coming out of this" said the other soldier. Everyone wore completely covered armor with high grade toxin filters including Leng. Everyone were standing just before the haze.

"Alright people, We collect the samples and get off here. Is that clear?" asked Leng. Everyone acknowledged.

"Let's go" said Leng. Then everyone proceeded to walk inside the haze.

After entering the haze, an atypical, ominous feeling surged through everyone. They didn't know if it was their hallucinations or real, but they were hearing distant screaming far away and lot of unpleasant noise started to appear.

"Crap! What the hell are those noise? Is it just me?" asked one soldier in a low voice.

"No, I hear that too" said another soldier.

"The first samples retrieved by Chandana's team were sent to Horizon facility. But the facility failed to respond for more than a week. Those who went to check it out also went dark" said Leng.

Soon the hostility grew and everyone started to feel uneasy as they progressed deep inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I have never seen anything like this. This thing just scares me in" said one soldier.

"No one had seen this before. Let's hurry, the samples must be pure and intact near the crash" said Leng. Then everyone proceeded to move further with no disturbance.

Finally everyone got to see the crashed reaper which doesn't look too good, but was surprised to find it almost intact surviving the fall.

"This is it. The contaminants are highly concentrated here. Go and fill up the container" said Leng pointing up to the soldier carrying the container.

He then proceeded to walk slowly towards a rubble to collect the sample. He placed the container on the ground and slowly turned the vacuum generator in the container, it slowly sucked the contaminant in the air and started filling up the container.

But just above the rubble, a sage colored ugly quadped creature suddenly jumped above and roared at him.

"SHIT!" yelled the soldier who fell back to the ground, jerked in fear. It was roaring at him and he was hurrying to get the weapon and shoot. But before he could fire, the creatue leapt at him and killed him by biting him violently.

Soon many creatures of bipeds, quadpeds, arthropods and small tentacled bulbuous things started to show up roaring and screeching obnoxiously.

"Holy F***! What the hell are those things!?" yelled one solder as he pulled up his rifle and other followed suit. The creatures started running towards them.

"Quick! Open fire!" yelled Leng. They all started to shoot at those creatures and were slowly backing away from the place.

Instantly, 3 biped creatures leapt at another soldier and killed him despite being shot followed by an arthropod killing two more by gutting their abdomen.

"Shit! They are tearing us apart, fall back, fall back!" yelled Leng. The soldiers were shooting at those creatures and at the same time sprinted away from there.

But the creatures were faster. Leng used his biotics in killing small bulbuous creatures and bipeds but their numbers were replenishing more than they fall.

The remaining soldiers and Leng were running and at the same time managed to turn and shoot at those creatures. But they couldn't do much.

A soldier stopped and started to unload his grenade launcher and shot multiple rounds of grenade at the creatures. The blast managed to make more body count. But it was only enough to buy time for the others to escape and that soldier was instantly killed by the following horde.

"Shuttle, get to our position, now!" yelled Leng but unfortunately, the signal failed to reach and he cursed inward.

"Shit, my comm is down" said Leng

"Mine too" said one soldier.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, 3 quadpeds leapt several feet high and landed directly above the running soldiers and instantly killing 3 more soldiers and one of the creature shot spikes from it's mouth and killed 2 more soldiers.

"Shit Shit! these things don't stop!" yelled a soldier out of fear and he lost his sanity. He stopped running and roared at the creatures and shot his rifle blindly. That didn't stop those horrendous creatures as he became a feast to them.

There were only 4 more soldiers and Leng. Seeing their dwindling numbers, they stopped shooting and kept running instead. Leng's biotics barely killed 2 or 3 creatures.

But unfortunately, a big pod like thing flew over the air and fell just near them and it exploded with the contaminant gas knocking the 5 down as they grunted in pain.

There was nothing, wave after wave of noise and blind images moving, vision so blured. After a few minutes, Leng who was grunting in pain slowly opened his eyes and the first horrific sight was the knocked out soldiers were being enveloped by the sage colored biomass looking like a tentacle.

Leng tried to move but he couldn't feel his legs. But slowly managed to turn his front torso facing the sky using his hands. There was blood wounds in his face.

"*SPIT*...I..uh..never thought...*COUGH*...anything like this would happen! What the hell are these things?" said Leng spitting out blood.

Suddenly a creature came stood just in front of him. It then slowly turned its head down to look at him. Then it wide opened its mouth and slowly let out a scream. Leng was simply staring at it knowing that it's gonna finish him off, he let out his last words giving a laugh,

"Huh...Go to hell!" said Leng in a mild tone and then it was nothing. His world turned black. The creature bite him in his neck and that's the end of cerberus agent Kai leng.

But the other creatures already were sprinting towards the shuttle. It could be that they are dead. As the comms were scrambled, the cerberus cruiser dont know what was really happening as they couldn't see or hear anything beyond the haze.

Amidst the sage mist and the hordes of creatures, an infrasonic voice came,

 _ **"Paaaiinnnn...Anndd...Deeaath..."**_

 **...**

 **A/N: That's it. I hope you like it.**

 **An important note, next one or atleast 2 chapters will feature more lengthy conversations and character development as the UNSC and Arbiter's fleet are here. The spartans will have a long conversation with everyone, most importantly with Jorge and Arbiter.**

 **Shepard's collector base mission will not be so brief as that time will be spent more for setting the stage for mass effect 3 where Shepard and his crew becomes important.**

 **Well, Leng's not dead.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Xypher 1: Not 'only' Didact's memories. And except the change in his eyes, he stays human. Cerberus will no longer be Cerberus.**

 **Fer 81: I'll consider your advice.**

 **For those confused with this new enemy, It is indeed the 'Flood'. The combat forms are of the ancient races that lived in this universe.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect franchise.**

 **Chapter 17: That strange Calm before the Storm.**

Blue team and Cortana, after giving a briefing on the situation here, they had them settled in their places and wait until Alliance soldier Commander Shepard and his team gave full info on the reapers.

Chief once again had that weird feeling but this time, its more than just voices. He actually saw things as if he were there for few seconds. In the first vision, he was holding a particle rifle and saw a creepy darkness in the front where something lurked and roared at them. A soldier who wore a silvery armor which also had a pair of twin red lines in their helmet, nearby him yelled of their presence and also called him 'My Lord'. He didn't know who it was.

In the second vision, he found himself in a starship. He was looking at a large hologram of a planet and several ship in bound. He then said something about clogging defenses after 53 years to a nearby soldier who was floating carrying a long weapon. While it was slightly familiar, it never made sense to John.

After 13 long hours, everyone had quite settled down. It was 21:00 PM night, thus not much of an activity. The people even quickly acclimatized to the base's comfort. Of course, a lot of forerunner touch, it would be comfortable. Cortana analyzed the forerunner architectures and found it more sophisticated. Even the mere sight of it get anyone possessed.

At present, John and Halsey walked over the pathway to her private quarters. The paths were lit with lights. After a few minutes of walk crossing the road, they reached a series of small buildings which are nothing but the officer's quarters. After John escorted Halsey to her quarters, he used the console to open the door.

Once inside, Halsey was awestruck with the room's majestic look with couch, counter, tables. Also it was very well equipped to suit a scientist. She raised her eyebrows and let a whistle.

"Wow, This is really great. Thanks to you both" said Halsey turning to him. Chief simply nodded. She managed to see an advanced coffee maker machine upon the counter and a food slot machine with advanced controls. She managed get a cup nearby and fill it up with coffee.

"*SIGH*...I started to feel tired" said Halsey and took a she turned to Chief and talked.

"Alright, now that we are here, It's time to tend to your problem. What happened to you back there?" asked Halsey. This was when Cortana spoke to Chief privately.

"Chief, get me out of your palm" said Cortana. Chief without uttering a word, opened his right palm and Cortana's avatar jumped out and grew to human size. Halsey saw this calmly.

"Doc, I'm about to reveal a highly sensitive information to you, but I need your word that it won't slip out" said Cortana seriously. Halsey's eyes shrunk in suspicion. But she can be trusted with a confidential matter, besides she is one of the few, the spartans highly trusts.

"Right, whatever it is, it won't leave this room" Hasley swore with honesty. Cortana nodded and proceeded. She then slowly walked in between Chief and the doctor.

"While me and the blue team were at Iridescent, John underwent an additional augmentation" said Cortana which stunned the old doctor.

"WHAT!?" yelled Halsey in a low distressed voice. John and Cortana stayed silent over her question.

"That's why he's suffering from headache? For how long?" asked Halsey. This time Chief spoke out.

"It wasn't an headache. That was just a side effect" said Chief which confused her. Besides, even Cortana didn't know what it was this time.

"What are you saying Chief?" asked Cortana.

"It was a vision" replied Chief. Halsey and Cortana blinked in dilemma.

"What sort of vision?" asked the doctor. Chief then walked slowly around a table trying to remember what he saw. After a few seconds, he talked.

"It was like I was there in those visions for 5 seconds. At first, I was standing holding a weapon, with lot of armored soldiers near me staring the darkness in front. Then I was on a ship and there was someone beside me. I felt like I said something" said Chief turning to see Cortana and Halsey looking stupefied, "And then, nothing. The vision ended" said Chief.

Even for Cortana who already knew Chief's problem, the visions are a troubling fact. At first, she thought, it was only voices in his head. Now she felt the situation has got worse...or maybe not. Halsey never knew anything about this, so she was just stunned, but also annoyed as she was kept in the dark.

"At first, Chief had these strange voices going on in his head a couple of times, but now it looks like he could see things. This issue, it's getting complicated over time" said Cortana running her fingers over her temple. Halsey then further queried them. She nodded her head dismissively in disbelief and sighed.

"Right, This is something new to me. Maybe a full scale reading of John's anatomy, genetic data and neural mapping might help me identify the problem" said Halsey turning to Chief, "John, what is this augmentation you received?". Cortana answered for the Chief.

"Doc, I have compiled gigabytes of information you need to see through. I am sending it to this personal holo-terminal. You can download it to your data pad and read" said Cortana sending the information package to the holo terminal in the room corner. Halsey turned to look at the terminal that beeped.

"So what is this package?" asked Halsey.

"You see it for yourself. Not only John's medical scans, but a lot more that you should know, information more dangerous than WMDs. Take your time and once you are done, call us" replied Cortana.

Halsey shrunk her eyebrows, puzzled and then nodded. John's new augmentation was truly unsettling. She already have her regrets in ruining the lives of 75 kids in the name of humanity's greater good. This further mutations would only force her to show further contrition. But right now, she has to focus on the problem at hand.

"Fine, I don't know what you have in store for me. But I'll go through everything you gave" replied Halsey.

"Then I think it's time we left this place. We are going to see Jorge" said Chief and Cortana vanished into Chief's palm. Halsey nodded in acknowledgement. Then Chief left the doctor's quarters.

Doctor Halsey finished her coffee and placed the cup upon the table and stood like a statue, her face expressing grievance. She then kept her hand across the temples and nodded dismissively.

"Dammit! What had John got himself into?" thought Halsey. She then turned her face to look at the terminal at the corner of the room. There was her new data pad upon the same table. She took the pad in her hands and then walked over the holographic terminal.

She then tapped a few commands in the data pad and resulted in successful interface with the terminal. She then moved towards the couch and sat freely. She then saw a new package being received in the data pad. She tapped into the package to reveal the file name, 'Cortana's Testimony'.

"Alright, let's see what the testimony is about" she muttered to herself. She touched the file which then opened to show a lot of information titles indexed by numbers.

"Wow, that's a lot!" said Halsey and then scrolled the list to see the titles. She immediately caught sight of some peculiar titles. Her face let a quizzical expression.

"Ancient human-forerunner history!?...Does it have anything other than what I know?...Forerunner rates and politics?...Huh, she quite obsessed. But still I can read it afterwards" muttered Halsey with a chuckle. She continued scrolling. She then caught sight of what she looked for.

"John-117's biological and genetic profile...What's this?...The real secrets behind the Spartan II's?...Hm, I'm their creator and there's no secret about my program than what I contributed" muttered Halsey, but grew suspicious. These headlines urged her eagerness to study everything. She then touched the John-117's profile.

"Let's see what happened to John" said Halsey. The title block opened up all the information within. Halsey patiently read each and every lines of theory and also got to see many image segments of John's anatomy.

The truth is, each and every line she read and every image she viewed struck her mind and body like a 100 mega volt lightning. Her face turned dreaded and her eyes widened in confusion, offensive every passing second, her heart beat rising up, her body posture turning uncomfortable, her fingers scrolling the details in the data pad rapidly fast. She interjected at a low stressed tone,

"OH...MY...GOD!..."

 **...**

 **Unknown place, Unknown time...**

Kai leng was walking along a path he never understood. He was hastily turning his head all over the place to find where he was. But his attempts were futile. There was nothing but a dim opaque light surrounding with no sense of direction or start and end point. There was this vacuum infrasonic 'hum' sound throughout and the other was his heartbeat.

"What the hell is this place?" said Kai leng loud, but didn't echo anywhere. He was feeling tensed.

"What were those creatures? First, I was fighting them along with my men and I was or thought I was killed by them. Now I am here...*GRUNT*"

He then proceeded to walk forward. The light had this faint effect of moving back and everything was nothing but a mirage. He was walking and walking with nothing in the front but the same dim light. He felt he was not gonna reach an end to this path and started to loose patience.

"WHERE-THE-HELL-IS-HERE!?" yelled Leng. But this time, he received a response in the form of a deep grim laugh. Leng suddenly stopped and his body became stiff and alarmed of a presence. But weird, he didn't sweat.

Suddenly, Leng managed to see a distant faint shadowy figure, more like a humanoid walking towards him. It was huge, but gradually it's size reduced as it approached him. Leng was staring at the figure. At that instant Leng recognized that the place he was standing in was not a real place.

But now, he decided to take care of that approaching figure, with it's edges slowly becoming clearly visible. He was prepared to face it.

 **...**

Chief left the doctor's quarter and was walking adjacently near the series of small buildings. He then suddenly stopped and tilted his head down a few degrees. He and Cortana gave all the information to Halsey. He acknowledged the fear, how Halsey would react in the light of these new information.

"Cortana, How do you think Halsey's gonna take this?" asked Chief.

"The package I gave her? Chief, we just gave an important piece of information. This is something we all, including her must know. This information could just propel humanity to unprecedented heights" said Cortana.

"I know. But, this information is safe only in the right hands" said Chief who believed the exact same thing.

Chief's wariness was more directed at ONI, coz the spartan IIs belong to the ONI section 3. And because of that, John and every IIs have quite a knowledge about how ONI thinks and works, in and out. Of course, ONI contributed a lot during the 30 years war, but their approach to any problem though seem desperate for an outside observer, had truly always been controversial. But there are things that John never knew like ONI secretly helping covenant loyalists to escape Arbiter's forces and even went so far as to try and destroy the Sanghelios itself in 2553. But ONI failed to do that, more precisely Admiral Parangosky who was the then CIC of ONI. John is a man who values friends as much as his loyalty to his duty as a soldier. Ever since the incidents on the Ark, John and Thel viewed each other as comrade in the battlefield and personal friends outside. If he ever come to know of such ONI's acts in the future...The situation becomes unpredictable.

"Chief, I still stick to my opinion about doctor Halsey that she's a condescending bi***. But trust me when I say that there's no better human at keeping secrets for good, than the doctor" said Cortana which made John to raise his eyebrow and let a faint smile at her reference. It's true that Cortana hates Halsey for what she did to the IIs as kids. She felt that halsey ruined their lives. But John and every IIs accepted their fate and even embraced it as a chance to be something larger than life.

"Whatever you say" said Chief and then started walking again and reached Jorge's quarters. He used his knuckles to knock the door.

"Who's it?" came a voice from inside.

"It's me" Chief replied. "Chief! Wait a second" came a female voice. He easily identified it was Kelly's. Then the door opened to reveal Fred, Kelly, Linda and Jorge with their helmets out and seated in strong chairs.. Chief didn't expect his team here with Jorge, but decided that too was for good. Chief stepped inside.

"Good see you brother" greeted Jorge. It looks like after staying the same since rough times, conversing with his own brothers and sister's brought the calmness out of him.

Chief nodded and took a seat besides Linda and removed his helmet. Jorge instantly got to see his chiseled rectangular face with short brown, flat-top haircut, especially his luminescent yellow orange iris. Jorge's face turned quite serious and spoke in his native Hungarian accent.

"Whoa Chief, What happened to your eyes? Are you alright?" asked Jorge. Fred, Kelly and Linda immediately turned to look at Chief and were staggering with their thoughts as to what to say. But Chief interrupted their thoughts.

"It's a long story Jorge, One for another time when we are free. But apart from that, I'm fine. Besides, I came here to talk to you" said Chief diverting the subject. Jorge nodded and spoke.

"Then let's talk. I was talking to them until you came here" said Jorge.

"I wanted to know how you escaped Reach 5 years back" said Chief which drew a wary attention from Fred, Kelly and Linda. Jorge's frowned as Chief simply asked him to recap the nightmares he suffered and post traumatic stress he had till a few weeks ago.

"Chief, please" pleaded Kelly.

"I'm asking this because I need to know. I have a proposition for him" replied Chief turning to Jorge. Jorge though frowned was wondering what his proposition was.

 **...**

Kail Leng saw the approaching shadowy figure. It's size gradually reducing and it's humanoid features started to reveal. But as it came more closer, it appeared more human. Kai leng blinked at the figure. He identified more human nature of the figure.

The figure was now just a couple meters away and Kai leng was stunned to see the figure as it was nothing but his own reflection. Except the reflection is not that form a mirror. Leng was standing still, but the figure covered another meter distance closer to him.

"You look like me but you are not me. Who are you?" asked Leng in anger. The figure stared at him and then smirked. He was annoyed and yelled again.

"Who the fu-...?" asked Leng immediately cut by the opposite Leng just with a hand rise and the palm facing the real Leng's face. He stopped and after a second, the reflection dropped his hands down. Then it spoke in a slightly different simulated voice.

" _ **I am not you. I am the voice of vengeance. I...am the controller of your mind"**_ replied the reflection. Leng didn't understand a thing, but something about the mind made him attempt a guess.

"Mind? So...This is all happening...In my mind? Who are you?" asked Leng awestruck. The reflection stretched it's neck to free the stress and replied.

" _ **I am an echo of many that lived for eons. Resonance is the key and I am 'The Key' to the mind...I AM the 'KEY MIND'"**_ said the reflection. Kai leng didn't understand a thing.

"What kind of sick blabber is this?" asked Leng irately.

" _ **I don't have to waste my time with you, primitive. For I'll get what I need"**_ said the reflection.

His reflection was looking same with same voice and slang. But the statements were poetic and inhuman.

"You dare!...Calling me a-...AAAAAHHHHHH!" Leng suddenly yelled, flinching in extreme pain. He knelt down, holding his head tight and letting loud grunt. He felt his brain being drilled through his skull. His cybernetic implants didn't do much. It was more of forced intrusion. He felt something was scanning his brain for memories. Slowly the sensation of vertigo rose, getting crippled and the fact of the matter was, he knew he was losing control of his own body and mind and couldn't do anything about it. He realized that whatever intruded his mind, it left only his personality intact for the time being. He also found that those implant offered no resistance like it wasn't even there. Now he truly realized that something's messing with his brain.

Now Kai leng felt only confusion and frustration. He had never been in or seen such things like what he's going through.

The reflection simply stared at nothing, tilting it's head down. After a few seconds, it smirked and then slowly walked around the real Leng in circle.

 _ **"Hm...Cerberus...A splintered body committed to serve humanity's ascendancy?..."**_

There was a pause.

 _ **"Nooo...**ECHOES**...You are not like what we have seen at the 'Other' place...But a lot of resources...Hm hm...Lots of life to consume...Then it's time to release my 'Instruments' that will begin the harvest which was patternly in progress even before we came here"**_ said the reflection to itself. It obtained every piece of information about the cerberus. It shoved aside the unwanted memories as it wasn't interested in those.

But suddenly, it managed to hack into another confidential information, information about the recent events. It didn't expect to see this and found it impossible to be there.

 _ **"What is this?"**_ excitingly asked the reflection.

 **...**

The Blue team and Jorge were seated in Jorge's quarters. Chief asked Jorge to tell him exactly how he escaped reach 5 years back. Chief knew how difficult was it to remind the nightmares back, but he had his reasons. Jorge frowned, but decided to tell anyway as nothing's gonna change and he was already 5 years past that.

"Jorge, don't get me wrong. I'm asking this for a nice reason" said Chief. Jorge sighed a bit and stared down for a few seconds.

"Jorge?" called out Fred.

"At the end of the 'UPPERCUT', After I used the makeshift slipspace bomb to destroy the supercarrier 'Long night of solace' along with the whole fleet, I thought I was done for...But no" said Jorge with flashes of memories moving at a faster pace.

"What happened?" asked Linda.

"The corvett in which I carried the bomb sheared into half and with me inside along with some debris of the carrier were thrown out in proximity to the outer colony of Lambda aurigae system far beyond, stranded in the nebular space with no means of communication, not even to send a distress signal" explained Jorge.

"How long before someone found you?" asked Kelly.

"For 60 days. And then I heard a lots of hum in the space which were nothing but alien vessels. I assumed it was the covenant, but it wasn't. They were a separate Kig-yar and Unggoy mercs in ships in the size of UNSC frigates but well armed" said Jorge.

"What? How did they get to the outer colony?" asked Chief with surprise.

"They didn't come for the colony. They were tracking the automated distress beacon, the corvett sent while dropping out of slipspace. With no means to contact anyone and planet to settle, I did something I regretted the most" said Jorge. Fred understood the meaning. He knew what anyone would do in that kinda situation.

"Don't say you struck a deal with them" said Fred with a smirk. Jorge wasn't surprised.

"I'm not surprised, you guessed it right. But that's what I exactly did. Again, I had another plan in motion" said Jorge.

"That you were trying to deceive them to get your hands on their ships to get to a UNSC colony?" asked Chief. Again Jorge wasn't surprised. Spartan IIs always had that weird telepathic link among themselves such that, one would correctly predict another's thoughts.

"Exactly"

"What about the persuasion?" asked Linda.

"At first, their motive was to kill me. But I wasn't afraid. Because for every spartan, his body itself is a deadly weapon. But even that weapon has limits. The mercs were armed with military grade weapons and outnumbered me by 100:1. Even if I manage to kill them, the other ships won't hesitate to take out their own if an enemy has infiltrated them. That would be counter productive. I needed their resources" said Jorge.

"What did you do at last?" asked Kelly.

"Ha ha...I said that I could get them valuable resources from a UNSC outer colony's abandoned mine, and it took time to convince them. I asked ration supplies and what ever I can from them to sustain myself. They accepted my offer. The negotiation was successful, but they proved they are un-trust worthy bastards" said Jorge with disgust.

"What happened?" asked Fred.

"Their fleet secretly took me to a covenant loyalist group in another system to exchange me for lots of money, weapons and resources" said Jorge.

"Huh, We were always high valued by the covenant because of our abilities. Sure they did wanna get their hands on us" said Chief.

"Yes, But fate turned sideways on the mercs" said Jorge enthusiastically. The blue team wondered what happened.

"When the mercenary fleet made contact with the covenant fleet, instead of a deal, they got one hell of an arse kicking" said Jorge.

"Did the covenant attack the mercs?" asked Kelly.

"Yes, they sent lots of boarding parties and the next thing you know...There were total chaos and these mercs had to deal with the militiristic forces and almost forgot me. This is when I took chance and I made kill counts as much as I can, The covenant took maximum prisoners with them. I managed to secure the vessel" said Jorge.

"Then escaped to a nearest UNSC world?" asked Chief.

"I tried to use the slipspace engines, but one covenant cruiser disabled the vessel's drive. So I was forced to use the sub light propulsion at full power, thanks to then still intact reactors. I had to evade the fleet's plasma projectiles manually and finally got out of their sight and too weird, they didn't bother to follow me. That was the reason It took me 6 months to reach the nearest UNSC inner colony world" said Jorge.

The blue team understood how hard was to Jorge, to be trapped alone in a spider's nest. Even though spartans were trained to be effective in high risk situation, that would still take some toll on them. To maintain operational efficiency, they don't dwell on good and bad and focus only on mission. But in Jorge's case, he was broken because of the covenant's glassing of Reach, his home world while he must have certainly not suffered from the events followed. But Chief needed to know Jorge's present mentality.

"I know how hard was it to be trapped and isolated 8 months" said Chief

"I was never hurt by those incidents. What really shook me was when the covenant bastards glassed Reach. But I am even past holding that grudge anymore as things changed a lot after 5 years. Yesterday's enemies are today's allies. Besides, you would not know the difference between right and wrong when you are misled" said Jorge feeling no regrets or anger.

The blue team was quite happy that he still remained an un-distracted effective spartan II, especially Chief was more than satisfied as he was about to speak then.

"Jorge, if you aren't traumatized by those events and believe that you are still 100% combat effective, You are not objected to take part in high risk missions?" asked Chief. Jorge was confused with his ridiculous question.

"That's a ridiculous question, Chief. I am born ready to do what we spartans do best!" said Jorge loud. Chief recognized the confidence without intimidation in his words.

"Then I gotta be honest with you. See, There's not much of us left. As of now, there are only two spartan II fire teams still intact. Us and the other team, Red. But Everyone's uncertain of the crew of 'UNSC Spirit of Fire'" said Chief.

"Jerome, Douglas and Alice were assigned to Captain Cutter and his crew for a campaign at Harvest by 2531. That's the only official and the last record of Spirit of fire" said Linda.

"No one knew what happened to them?" asked Jorge.

"As of today, the ship and it's crew are listed MIA. There were no further records of their activity at Harvest. When a ship goes missing, only the Highest ranking member of the UNSC HIGHCOM, i.e., Lord Hood will order a search and rescue under the salvage directives" said Fred.

While there are many spartans from the IV program now, still IIs were the heroes of humanity. Their dwindling numbers are nothing but gifts for their contribution in humanity's survival.

"But Chief, why are you asking this?" asked Jorge shrinking his eyebrows. Chief took a few seconds to reply.

"I'll get this straight. What do you think about joining the blue team?" asked Chief. Everyone were stunned at the question. Their eyes widened in this unexpected surprise. Of course, it would be surprise because Jorge-052 was also called Noble five. He was a part of the prestigious spartan III Noble team where he was the only II and still considered himself as Noble five even though the team ceased to exist after the fall of Reach. While Fred, Kelly and Linda knew him as a spartan II brother, they never worked together as team, so they found Chief's proposal interesting and enthusiastic.

"Uh...It is an interesting offer, but-..."

"But you still see yourself as Noble five, I know" finished Chief. Jorge's face expressed uncertainty.

"Then this is not something I can do it right away. I need time to think about it" said Jorge.

"You take your time, Jorge. But you know that we are the only spartan IIs left as of now. We are here in an unknown yet same place to combat a galactic threat. It is time we fought together as a spartan II team just like before" said Fred. Jorge found Fred's words reasonable. A spartan II team had always been successful, no matter the cost.

"Think about it Jorge. You are the only II left here, alone. Commander Carter along with Commander Palmer lead the IVs in Infinity. If you join us, we could be an effective team. Besides, you have your own skill and way of accomplishments just like we do" said Kelly.

Jorge started to think about it. What they said was true. Like it or not, there's no Noble team now, but he has the honor of being one of it's survivor. He can still honor the fallen by again working with the team of his own brothers and sisters and do the best. At last, there's not much he can do if he stayed alone. So he made his decision.

"So Jorge-052? You in or not?" asked Chief who along with the others stood up and Chief extended his hand for a deal. Jorge stood up too looking at Chief's hands. He then nodded in acceptance and shook his hands.

"Alright Chief, I will join the blue team...Back on line, brother" said Jorge giving a smile. Chief returned a faint smile.

"Then it's official. Chief Warrant Officer Jorge-052 is a member of Blue team" said Fred. Chief then used his left forearm computer and added Jorge's Bio and Comm profile. Others did the same.

"I'll relay this information to Captain Lasky. You better tell this to commander Carter, being your ex-leader of the Noble team" said Chief to which he nodded. Chief then put on his helmet back and spoke to Cortana was listening the whole conversation.

"You are good at persuasion. It's glad to have Jorge in your team" said Cortana to which he mentally nodded. Chief then proceeded his next step.

"Cortana, Can you upgrade his armor and install mods like what you did for my team?" asked Chief. Jorge raised his eyebrows.

"Sure, I'll get it done by tomorrow" said Cortana to which he acknowledged.

"Well then, it's already 11:30 pm. We'll have some sleep and see through the work tomorrow" said Jorge.

"Right, then see you later" said Kelly to which he waived his hand.

Then Chief and others left Jorge's quarters and went to their own place. There they used the drones to get their armors out. Then they went to sleep. They must rest while they still can as there won't be anytime in the future, 'A war is coming'.

 **...**

The Leng's reflection was razing the original Leng's mind for information and he stumbled upon something it never expected. There were information about 'Slipspace', unknown human and Alien faction with strange technology, strange arsenals etc.,

 _ **"That's impossible. This can't be-...No, It's possible. They must have found it. And through the gateway we created a long time ago, they must have crossed the territory"**_ said the reflection. Kai leng couldn't hear a thing as he already appeared to have fainted.

 _ **"Things have changed. We need to do some more. Human, You have outlived your purpose. But still you will be useful to me. From now on, It's no Kai leng. It's 'US' "**_ said the reflection after which immediately actual Leng's body disappeared from the place. It was now only the reflection, the key mind.

It was absolute chaos with deadly creatures swarming the area. Kai leng and every others were killed by them and then they slowly started to mutate. Kai leng whose face and body mysteriously didn't mutate.

But he who was lying down, suddenly opened his eyes and plucked his delumcore head gear and threw it away only to reveal his sage colored eyes and sage mist coming out of his mouth. He then slowly lifted his body to a standing position in a levitating manner. Then he stretched his neck, hands and legs to relax his body from stress. He was looking around to see the creatures running past him. He then lifted his arms to take a look at it and spoke,

"A primitive host, but enough to carry out my plans. Let's sweep this place off and go get the king fish" said Leng(the key mind) which had replaced Leng's personality in a slightly distorted voice. He then ran along with the creatures to the place where there were drop shuttles that escorted Leng's company. He saw the crew was dead already and assimilated by the creatures.

"Dammit Mac! What the hell's goin on down there? Lieutenant and his company are not responding to our calls" said the helm 1 in the cerberus cruiser.

"I know. Also check this out, the terrain imaging shows that mist is expanding. What do you think is down there?" asked helm 2.

"I don't know, but shit's real crazy and that much I can clearly understand" replied helm 1. The cruiser pilots lost their track within the mist and stayed that way for almost an hour.

Kai leng launched a drop shuttle and flew above the ground. The key mind which claimed to have replaced actual Leng's personality in fact copied it to it's own neural network before replacement. It means, whatever this key mind is, it can perfectly mimic his personality in Leng's body without raising doubt. But he must cover his face or else it will easily let others to find out. This key mind had one goal, to find this cerberus's hideout and do what it had planned to do.

"Lieutenant Leng to the Cruiser, We have code red situation. We need to get off this place quickly" said Leng.

"Roger that Lieutenant. Opening the blast door for shuttle entry" said Helm 1.

"What happened to your voice Lieutenant?" asked Helm 2. Leng was silent for a moment and was figuring out how to respond.

"Helmet equipment failure and we were attacked. I'll explain this later, Leng out" said Leng cutting the comm.

He then took a cerberus centurion helmet in the adjacent seat and wore it and sealed completely to hide his face. His shuttle reached the cruiser and entered through the open bay door and landed inside. He exited the shuttle only to be greeted by five armed soldiers.

"Sir, we lost contact with your company" said soldier 1.

"We have no time to talk. The whole place down is swarmed with unknown creatures. I was damn lucky to get myself not killed" said Leng.

"Should we launch a counter strike?" asked another soldier.

"Soldier, it literally took only a minute to take my team down. We need to warn the Illusive man. Now get prepared" ordered Leng to which the soldiers saluted and paved way for him.

Leng after a few minutes, reached the bridge to converse with the pilots.

"Helm? Set course for Cronos station. We have a grave situation down there that required Illusive man's prompt attention. Now before asking unnecessary questions, get us the hell outta here!" barked Leng. The helmsmen shivered and nodded in fear. Then flew the cruiser out of Lethe.

Leng then walked out of the bridge and reached his quarters in an elevator. He entered the room and then opened his helmet. instantly fresh air entered his lungs. He started to grunt and gritted his teeth. Then he opened his sage green eyes and spoke to himself.

 _ **"Not much in this host's memories. Maybe this Illusive man human can give me more"**_ said Leng(Key mind) to himself. and was staring at the space before him.

 **...**

 **Normandy SR-2,**

 **380, 000 kms from the Omega-4 relay...**

Shepard and his crew had obtained the reaper IFF and fought a never before seen enemy on a dead reaper. They barely escaped with their lives and in the process, EDI's shackles were removed. Then she worked to install and synchronize the IFF with the Normandy's systems.

EDI called out Shepard, Miranda and Jacob to the comm room. The three moved to attend EDI hail.

"EDI, what for you called us three?" asked Shepard.

"Commander, I have successively analyzed the reaper IFF algorithms and managed to install it" said EDI. There was a moment of excitement among the three. This was the time they all waited for. Now all they had to do was to hit the collectors to their place.

"Then I think we can assemble the team and starts the ops" said Miranda.

"Wait. I need to tell you something" said EDI in a serious tone.

"What is it?" asked Jacob

"While I studied the IFF, something wasn't right" said EDI.

"Was the module corrupted?" asked Shepard confused.

"I wouldn't say corrupted. But there seems to be a flaw. The IFF functions with the mere logic that if successful acknowledgement is made between two reaper ships, then its friendly or its a foe, that simple" said EDI.

"Are you saying there's a flaw in that logic?" asked Miranda.

"Yes, the IFF's past recorded data shows that the reapers had been mysteriously subjected to a logic flaw by unknown means. It has turned into something ever changing like a biological mind" said EDI. This made the three to feel bad about the growing situation.

"You mean to say that-..." Jacob dragged his words,

"I say that I don't know if this IFF will work to our favor or not. I managed to use my anti-reaper cyber warfare suites to isolate the flaw but I can't do anything more than that. It's more complicated to a point that I may only decipher 12% of flaw in 10 years, 83.33 years for 100%" said EDI which stunned everyone.

"Good God! We don't have that much years to stop the reapers. We can't delay the collector mission. We have invested a lot in this" said Shepard hesitatingly.

"Shepard's right. But EDI, what do you suggest?" asked Miranda feeling despondent with EDI's facts.

"We can still succeed. Even if the IFF fails, I can mimic a similar IFF signal through Normandy by using the reaper IFF codes embedded into the carrier wave" said EDI which quite relieved them of the stress.

"Huh, at last a good news. Commander?" called out Jacob. Shepard was analyzing the situation, how to approach this mission. Then he snapped out of the thoughts and spoke with a clear mind with one goal.

"Get ready and ask the others to do the same" ordered Shepard.

"Aye aye commander" replied Miranda and they both left the briefing room. Then Shepard called out Joker.

"Joker, get to the omega-4 relay. It's time to begin the mission. What's the ETA?" asked Shepard.

"Yes commander. ETA to omege-4 is 2hrs30minutes. Let me notify you when we pass through" said Joker. Shepard acknowledged and cut the comm.

"EDI, get me Illusive man" said Shepard.

"Yes Shepard" said EDI and the tables shifted and a orange scanner scanned Shepard. After a minute, Illusive man's hologram appeared before him.

"Shepard" greeted the Illusive man with a cigar in his hand.

"We got everything we need. We are about to begin the mission in 2hrs" said Shepard.

"Then this is the moment Shepard. We are going to show what we are capable of to the collectors and reapers. You are about to achieve something that no human, no being achieved commander. I was right to bring you back for this mission. Only you can lead an effective team, enter the enemy's lair and beat them. I never underestimated you" said the Illusive man.

Shepard recognized the flattery in his voice, but he knew that he had to try a lot harder than that to trust him.

"Flattery aside, Illusive man. Once we destroy the collector's home world, we would have the dragged the reaper's attention" said Shepard, which made Illusive man's face quite disappointed and annoyed but tried hard to hide it.

"Shepard, keep the comm intact all the time. I may need to know the instantaneous progress. it's too important for me" said Illusive man. Shepard folded his hands and raised his eyebrow.

"Don't trust me Illusive man?" asked Shepard. Illusive man kept a collected face and had a smoke.

"Shepard, there are something's I can't explain right away. You need to understand, that I have invested a lot in this. So I must know how this plays out" said Illusive man but his tone had a concealment. He knew he was lying in that regard, only that Shepard didn't know.

"Right, I'll keep in touch" said Shepard

"Good luck Commander" said Illusive man cutting the QEC. Shepard got out of the briefing room. Then he went to his quarters by taking the elevator.

After reaching his quarters, he turned right to see a picture stand. He walked slowly near it and took the picture, it revealed the picture of Ashley Williams.

His eyes were fixed on that picture and there was a moment of nostalgia. He reminded himself of how he met her first on Eden prime, then saving her from the prothean beacon. Then mission after mission in chasing Saren, Shepard openly spoke and expressed his feelings for her and she returned the same. Then he remembered the night, they had love and their eventual meeting after 2 years and how things didn't play out well this time. But Shepard received an e-mail from her stating that she was sorry for her behavior on Horizon. Liara's words echoed, _"Let us hope the galaxy is worthy of your efforts"_. He was not only fighting for the galaxy, but also for those he love and care the most.

His mind was clear. He knew his goal and ready to strive to win the war. He placed the picture back on the table and equipped himself with Blood dragon armor. Then he reached the CIC and got to the weaponry. He then equipped with Revenant assault rifle, geth shotgun, Phalanx pistol and Arc projector.

He then saw Jacob loading himself with his guns. After arming himself, he walked near him.

"Jacob"

"Commander?" asked Jacob holstering his shotgun.

"Ready for the mission?" asked Shepard.

"Yes commander" replied Jacob. Shepard nodded in acknowledgement.

"See you later" said Shepard who was about to leave the weaponry.

"Shepard, wait" called out Jacob to which Shepard stopped and turned back.

"Thank you for helping me out and everyone with their issues" said Jacob.

"My crew's morality comes first, Jacob. I did what I had to keep my team effective. Glad that I was able to help you with your problems" said Shepard, cheering Jacob.

"If we get out of this alive, I'll buy the first round, Deal?" asked Jacob. Shepard nodded and left the room.

 **2 hours later...**

"Commander, we approaching the relay in 5...4...3...2...1" said Joker and Normandy slowly got charged by the red eezo core of the omega-4 relay. Shepard reached the cockpit, standing near by Joker. The Normandy was cruising at super luminal speeds where everything appeared blurred.

"Exiting in 3 seconds" said Joker. After 3 seconds, the vessel exited FTl and immediately was exposed with a voluminous amount of debris floating.

"HOLY SHIT!" Jerked Joker who ran his hands along the console to fast maneuver between the debris field.

"Shepard, metallurgical scans shows that some of these broken ships are more ancient" said EDI.

"Joker, be careful. Look for the gaps to pass through. We can't let it hit us" said Shepard. Joker was cruising through the gaps and then they all got to see something in a far distance.

"What the hell is that!?" exclaimed Joker.

...

 **A/N: Cerberus is coming to an end. From next chapter, the war begins.**

 **Hope you enjoyed it!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Xypher1: I get your feelings regarding the flood...:) Well, your prediction about the chief is quite true to an extent. But he doesn't carry any other forerunner imprints but just one and another one apart from forerunners. Seperatists may reach tier one, but humanity will reign supreme and will overwhelmingly outclass the forerunners themselves with their own innovation after certain revelations just as their creators wanted them to be. You will see the hints by the end of the story and in a possible sequel.**

 **Fer82: First, thanks for your review. Second, please don't get me wrong, but I do know what a key mind is. It's the final form of flood evolution before the transgalactic stage. But one key mind is not enough to achieve that and I know that too. A keymind is like a thousand graveminds in a single body. There are reasons for the key mind's strategy in the previous chapter.**

 **Guest and 63: Thank you.**

 **A/N: Spirit of fire will appear but not in mass effect universe.**

 **And I just watched the ME Andromeda game play. While the character and environment modelling and textures, Anti-aliasing are good and even great at higher resolutions, the animation looks robotic and expressionless or blunt. Hope they fix it. Apart from that, game play and combat mechanics are awesome.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass effect franchise.**

 **Chapter 18: Prelude to the End game**  
 **June 15, 2185**  
 **03:15 AM GST**

Commander Shepard and his crew after getting locked and loaded embark on the endgame of hunting down the collectors. He had done it all, gathered an impressive multi species team, earned their trust, gathered every possible resources and they passed through the omega-4 relay.

Now they had reached the region of the collector home wold with no knowledge of what lies ahead.

"What the hell is that?" asked Joker looking at something far in the space. Shepard and Joker got to see the black hole with lots of photonic matter forming the accretion disk. Nearby, they saw this big artificial structure that was standing intact.

"THAT is the collector home world. So this is were they reside and now they are all gonna die with it" said Shepard in an ambitious tone.

"Shepard, The home world is present 10,000kms away from the accretion disk well beyond it's gravitational influence" said EDI. By the time Miranda lawson reached the cockpit.

"Good. Joker, Get us a way in. Nice and slow" ordered Shepard. Joker acknowledged and rode the vessel towards the collector base. But things weren't silent for a long time.

The collector seeker drones sensed their presence and engaged the Normandy. The alarm beeped the cockpit in red alert.

"What is it?" asked Joker.

"The collector drones have spotted us" replied EDI.

"Damn! Evading the drones and looking for possible engagement" said Joker who ran his hands over the console. The Normandy suddenly flew upwards and did a back flip. The drones shot particle beams at the Normandy. Joker was having a hard time evading it.

"EDI, I need something to hit them with" yelled Joker.

"Locking on to the targets" EDI responded. Then Normandy's secondary guns fired and destroyed 2 drones. But suddenly, three more drones entered the picture and chased the Normandy and this time they got a clear shot at the vessel. The crew lost their balance for the time being.

"Shit! They are hitting us" said Joker irately.

"We can do it as long as the new armor holds off" replied Miranda. For the next five minutes, Joker evaded their attacks. But then one drone came from the opposite direction. It then charged at full speed and hit the Normandy.

"Warning, hull breach detected at the hanger. The drones have found a way in" said EDI. Shepard nodded dismissively.

"Joker, try to bring the drones down. I'll get a team down at the hanger to take care of the invader" said Shepard.

"Aye aye commander" acknowledged Joker.

"Garrus, Grunt, meet me at the hanger. We got company" said Shepard over the comm.

"Yes Shepard"..."In a second" replied both Garrus and Grunt.

Shepard then took the elevator to reach the hanger. Grunt and Garrus rendezvous with Shepard at the hanger.

"Shepard, we got two drone inside. We can engage them from 2 sides behind the blowers" said Garrus to which he nodded and then entered the hanger to hold their positions.

They saw two drones slowly moving towards them scanning for their presence. Shepard gave hand signatures for three count. On the count of three, Shepard and Garrus unloaded their assault rifle on the drone which was charging the beam to attack them. In the mean time, Grunt used his concussive shot to hit the drone. This caused a distraction and drone focused fire on the Grunt. Shepard then used his biotic flare to hit one drone targeted at Grunt which depleted it's kinetic barrier and did quite a damage to it's body. Garrus once again loaded the concussive shot and hit it to make more damage. Then the 2 drones suddenly retreated out of the vessel.

Meanwhile Joker rounded in circles to evade the drone attacks.

"Joker, the drones just retreated. How are things there?" asked Shepard over the comm.

"EDI got a perfect lock. Engaging them now" said Joker and once again flipped the Normandy behind the drones and shot the secondary guns that destroyed the drones.

"Hah! Finally did it" exclaimed Joker. Shepard by the time reached the cockpit to see things personally.

"Good job Joker. Now I want you to get Normandy in with out the collectors spotting us" said Shepard.

"Sorry Commander, looks like they are already sending in a welcome party" replied Joker not too enthusiastic. Then they got to see the base releasing a collector ship from the hull.

"Shepard, the ship's mass effect core signature has similar readings to the one you faced 2 years ago" said EDI. That's when Shepard realized something he never thought to learn it.

"So, you say that this collector ship was the one that destroyed the original Normandy and it's crew?" asked Shepard bewildered. He couldn't believe it was the same ghost that was haunting him for 2 years.

"Warning, detecting energy build up in the ship's front cannon" said EDI. The collector ship charged the main particle beam cannon and was about to fire.

"Joker, time to show our trick" said Shepard. The collector vessel shot the particle beam at the Normandy. Joker maneuvered the vessel around the beam at danger close.

"Launching the main cannon" said Joker powering up the Thannix cannon. Then a second later, a powerful bluish white beam fired at the collector. The beam sheared the ship's surface and scorched it to a great depth. The beam ate everything away from the surface it touched.

"YEAH! EAT THAT, SONS OF BITCHES!" yelled Joker in excitement. Shepard patted him on his shoulder gently for the good job.

"One final shot" said Joker again firing the canon, but this time risking a proximity attack. The Thannix beam pierced the collector ship and killed it both from in and out. The ship sequentially exploded from bow to stern to a greater radius and came the next trouble.

"Oh oh! Watch out for the debris" warned Miranda. But before they could escape the explosive radius, the explosion knocked off the Normandy and it stumbled to get under control.

"Damn! The mass effect core is offline. Controls and backup systems are not responding. EDI, get me something!" yelled Joker who along with Shepard and Miranda were stumbling as the vessel got out of control.

"Emergency power system failure detected in the fuel cell chamber. Supply reroute has been disrupted" replied EDI. Joker wasn't amused at it. Shepard saw the ship hastily approaching the collector base. The left side rear wing got hit by one of the hull parts which threw the Normandy in to the base incalcitrantly.

"Brace for impact!" shouted Shepard. Miranda, Commander, Joker and the other CIC crew all held on to something. There was a great tension in the air. After closing the distance, the Normandy crash landed over it's surface in a large horizontal platform space.

Then after 10 seconds of continuous inertia beyond its friction coefficient, The vessel came to a stop.

Everyone inside the Normandy after this roller coaster, felt relieved and tended to each other in getting to their feet.

"Alright, that went well" said Joker feeling relaxed for sometime.

"Now the real job gets started. Miranda, call everyone to the briefing room" ordered Shepard.

"Yes Commander" Miranda saluted and then left the pilot's cockpit to gather everyone.

"EDI, Joker, keep an eye on the scanners. Do you think, we would be safe here?" asked Shepard.

"For now, Yes. Besides, we are in the place where access is impossible for ground troops from inside" replied Joker. Shepard nodded and then left the place to meet with his crew in the comm room after equipping himself.

 **After an hour...**

Shepard entered the briefing room, to see his entire crew inside waiting for their leader. To the left side of the comm table were Miranda, Jacob, Zaeed, Kasumi, Samara and Tali. To the right side of the table were Jack, Garrus, Grunt, Thane, Mordin. Shepard removed his Blood dragon armor helmet and took a look at his team who were reciprocating the same towards him.

"Commander, We are all here as you requested" said Jacob. Shepard nodded in acknowledgement. He then entered the room and rested his arms in the comm table and prepared to speak.

"Team, after all that we've been through for months, we are here, at the collector base. You all should know what we are fighting for" said Shepard.

"Thanks to you Shepard. Our team is the best" said Grunt punching his fist over his palm. Shepard gave a faint smile.

"EDI, bring the image" ordered Shepard. Then a big orange hologram of the collector base appeared floating above the table. Everyone stared at the image in amazement.

"So this is their hive, isn't it?" asked Garrus.

"Yes. Now we are here" said Shepard pointing to a particular spot which was highlighted in the hologram.

"Sure that the collectors won't find the ship here?" asked Zaeed in doubt.

"This place is inaccessible from the inside. So we are safe but still at our own risk" replied Shepard.

"So how do we get in?" asked Tali. This EDI spoke.

"There is large chamber behind this wall which can be accessed with sufficient fire power. By doing that, we can get in and at the same time drag the enemy's attention" said EDI pointing to a wall present just a 100 meters from the Normandy.

"So, first step is blow through. We don't have to worry about the fire power. But our target is the base's core power chamber. I can say that over loading their reactors with timed detonation can destroy the whole base" said Shepard highlighting the core chamber.

"Shepard's right. But it's not gonna be easy. If the collectors smell our plan, then we must be ready for the maximum resistance" replied Miranda.

"The door way to get to the core room is through that door. But it's controls are directed from the main control center. So someone should hack through the doors while a team distracts the alerted collector forces" said Jacob.

"Shepard I can lead the team from the other side" volunteered Miranda who was immediately cut off by Jack.

"Not so fast cheer leader. No one takes orders from you" criticized Jack which exasperated Miranda.

"Listen, this is not a popularity contest. We fail here, we fail everyone. Shepard, you need someone experienced to command a team" said Miranda in slightly raised tone. Shepard was calculating. He needed someone who can see through great distance to keep away the enemy. And he needed someone to hack through the door so that his own team can make it inside. He made his pick after a few seconds.

"Garrus, you will lead the team on the other side" said Shepard to Garrus.

"Yes commander" acknowledged Garrus.

"Tali, you are the best at hacking. You will hack through the door to get us inside" said Shepard.

"Good, but how do we do it?" asked Tali.

"There is a ventilation shaft that passes above in the same chamber that leads to the other side. Tali, you will use that and we will guide you from below", turning to Garrus, "Garrus, your team will use another passage to reach the other side. We gotta stay sharp at the same time we make greater kill counts" said Shepard. Garrus and Tali nodded.

"Well, at least somebody know what they are doing" said Miranda mockingly at Jack for which she didn't react. Shepard then got serious and gave a speech in general for all.

"This is just the beginning. Honestly, I don't even know what we would find in there. I am counting on every single one of you. We've come this far not to lose" Shepard narrated the final speech before the fight. They were looking at him with honor and pride and acknowledge him.

"Fine, let's move out and say Hello!" said Shepard and he picked Zaeed and Grunt to go with him for the initial assault.

 **...**

 **10,000kms from the Cronos station**  
 **June 15, 2185**

Kai Leng or whatever he's now was traveling in the Cerberus cruiser approaching the Cronos station at FTL speed.

"Lieutenant Leng, we are in position towards the station in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." said the helm over the comm.

"Roger that" replied Leng.

The cruiser exited the FTL and entered the normal space facing the big Cerberus station. The Key mind for an instant took control of Leng and stared at the station and let a grim smile.

" _ **Finally, we'll get what we sought"**_ said the Keymind in Leng's body.

"Approach the station and contact the security chief and notify him of our arrival" ordered Leng.

"Acknowledged lieutenant. Over and out" the helm broke the connection and the cruiser accelerated towards the Cronos station.

Kai leng was not only a high ranking officer but also a personal assassin to the Illusive man. He directly takes orders from him, so no one questions Leng except the boss. The Key mind learned this from his personality and decided to infiltrate using this privilege without raising suspicion.

As the cruiser neared the station, the helmsmen contacted the station's security chief Langdon from the control center.

"Chief Langdon, this is Cerberus cruiser helmsman Zachary, requesting permission to send a party" said the helm.

"Anyone special Zach? asked the security chief.

"We got Lieutenant Leng on board. He wants to meet with the boss" replied the helm. There was silence for 4 seconds and then the officer's voice came to life.

"Acknowledged. Proceed to bring a drop shuttle at hanger 05-C6" said the officer.

"Roger that, Zach out" the helm cut the comm and showed the thumbs up to Leng at the back who was listening to the conversation.

"I'll get to the shuttle bay and board a drop ship" replied Leng who then walked out of the CIC and entered the elevator to get to the shuttle bay. At the bay, he approached a pilot who was standing besides a drop ship checking for it's maintenance.

"Captain, you are gonna fly me to the station's hanger05-C6, Now" ordered Leng.

"Yes sir!" the pilot saluted him and proceeded to start the engines.

Leng boarded a drop ship and the cruiser's bay doors opened after depressurizing the place. Then the pilot flew it out of the cruiser.

The drop ship was flying a 2500 miles distance to the station. Leng was staring at the bright star that illuminated everything. Being close to the star for it's efficient power harness, people can't see the light with naked eyes. They need 3 layers of photon energy filters to reduce the luminosity. But Leng could see it with out strain, because it wasn't Leng who's staring at the star.

After 10 minutes, the drop ship approached the hanger 05-C6 and touched the ground. The door opened and out came the Illusive man's personal dog with many of them turning their attention towards him. Leng's face was covered with Cerberus helmet and there were patches of blood in his body which the others didn't mind.

Leng watched Langdon, the chief of security in Cronos approaching him. As he walked near him, he stood in attention and saluted him. Leng returned the salute and spoke.

"I need to speak with the Illusive man, top priority, only his ears" said Leng in commanding tone.

"Of course sir, we'll notify him of your arrival" replied Langdon.

"Thank you officer" said Leng and walked past was when the officer noticed blood patches in his armor.

"Sir, I think you had a great field trip. I suggest getting to the decontamination facility" said Langdon. Leng stopped and stood silent for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to face the officer.

"No need, just body punctures and I can take care of this myself" replied Leng.

"I am sorry sir, but protocol suggests-..."

"Protocol suggests that I only take orders from the boss, not from anyone around here. You get me?" asked Leng interrupting the officer. Langdon looked at him confused at his recalcitrant attitude. Leng used to talk nice with Langdon and this was weird for him. He hesitantly nodded.

"Ye-..Yes sir" acknowledged the officer. Leng let a smile inside the helmet.

"Good" replied Leng and walked near the elevator at the end of the bay. The proximity lights turned on and the elevator door opened and he entered. Leng pushed the button to reach his personal quarters. He's **(He's)** got a lot of things to do.

 **...**

 **Collector base,**  
 **05:45 AM GST**

Shepard, Zaeed and Grunt met with heavy resistance at the first sight of the collectors. It seemed that the collectors were more focused with Shepard's presence.

"Damn it! Zaeed, throw an incinerator at them" yelled Shepard who took cover behind a reflective solid barrier. Grunt was beside him hiding and Zaeed over the adjacent barrier. Zaeed threw an incinerator grenade over the collector soldiers on the opposite side. It burned and killed them. Shepard and Collector's forces had to play hide and seek.

"Shepard, the shaft is getting hot! Open the door using the controls" said Tali in a tensed voice over the comm. Tali was supposed to hack the door safely by passing through the ventilation shaft. But the shaft started to radiate waste heat for processing. She had to pass through 10 doors to exit. So far, she had crossed seven. Now is the eighth.

"Shit! Lot's of resistance! Hold on for few seconds Tali!" yelled Shepard shooting at the collector soldiers.

"Shep, the temperature is rising steadily, please hurry!" replied Tali and cut the comm.

Shepard managed to look at the control panel, a 100 mts from their position.

"Garrus, how are things from your side?" asked Shepard.

 **"*GUN SHOTS*...*GUN SHOTS*...** Shit! Lots of soldiers and these bulb heads with their heavy firing. We are almost near the door Shepard" replied Garrus.

"Good" said Shepard and cut the comm and turned to his team.

"Zaeed, give us sniper cover"..."Grunt, you are with me" said Shepard and on the count of 3, Shepard and Grunt got out of cover and Shepard used biotic shield and Grunt used heavy fortification.

They both stormed their way through the hordes of collector soldiers burning and stomping them with their bullets. Shepard used biotic flare to kill four collector units and turn them to dust. Grunt yelled "I AM A KROGAN" and charged at the collector forces in berserker rage without getting hurt. Zaeed was providing them with long range covering fire.

Finally they all reached the console. Shepard used it to open the 8th door.

"Door open, thanks Shepard. Now two more" said Tali who then proceeded to run through the next passage way until she hit upon the 9th door.

Shepard, Zaeed and Grunt followed the same procedure for the 9th and 10th door as the situation was repetitive, nothing new except fighting different collector soldiers each and every time.

After getting through the 9th and 10th door for next 15 minutes, Tali finally rendezvous with Garrus's team on the other side of the door while Shepard and his team were near the door fighting the collector forces.

"Tali, open the door quick!" yelled Shepard.

"A few seconds-..." replied Tali as she was working with the hologram as fast as her fingers could do it. Then the door finally opened.

"Door's open, get inside, everyone!" yelled the commander as the collector soldiers were already engaged by Garrus's team. After getting through the door, everyone shot at the collectors while Tali was busy trying to close the door. After 3 seconds, the hologram blinked and the door closed finally sealing the door between the collector forces and them.

"Everyone alright?" asked Shepard looking at every single member of his team.

"Alive and ready for round two" replied Jack excitedly. Shepard nodded and then walked a few steps away from them to focus all at the same time.

"Now that the plan's 1st phase is over, Let's move on to the second" said Shepard. But before he could say another word, Miranda interrupted.

"Commander, Take a look at this place" said Miranda where everyone turned to face the biggest hall with lots of holding pods. Everyone carefully made their steps to turn their heads all around them and at the top.

"Holy shit! Do they keep people in there?" asked Jacob shocked at the sight.

"Shepard, Over here!" called out Thane loud who went exploring the pods that were racked up everywhere. He managed to see something inside the pod and urged others to check it up.

Shepard and the others went near Thane only to be stupefied at the sight of what's in front of them. There were humans inside those pods.

"My goodness! These are the missing colonists" said Miranda stunned.

"They appear alive to me. Is there a way to release them from the cell?" asked Shepard.

"If there's no button, then we can always break it" said Grunt with a grin.

While everyone checked at the pods and tried to figure a way to release them, EDI came alive over Shepard's comm with an important message.

"Shepard, don't do that!" rushed EDI, warning them. Others were confused as to why she denied helping them.

"EDI? Why did you say that?" asked Shepard.

"These pods not only contain humans, shepard. Also some from other races, turians, salarians, vorcha, krogans, hanar..." EDI kept on the list.

"WAIT A MINUTE! That's impossible!" said Garrus out loud. There was this new kind of confusion in the air.

"EDI, are you sure? All these times we were told that the collectors were interested only on humans" said Shepard bug-eyed. Miranda was the most sullen among the team.

"Did the Illusive man knew this already? or is that something we all missed?!" asked Miranda out loud. Everyone looked at her wondering the same.

"Uhhh...Commander? EDI and myself managed to dig into some of the collector files from their memory banks hidden deep in the base" said Joker in sullen tone.

"And?" asked Shepard.

"And...I don't think you all would like it" finished Joker.

"That depends on the information Joker"..."EDI, what's that you found?" asked Shepard.

"Shepard, the collectors had been to both human and other colonies most of which are located at the terminus and borders. It is still unknown how they slip passed other races colonies. But now I realized why the collectors had been doing this?" said EDI.

"What are you talking about?" asked Shepard.

"Remember the strange things you saw inside a derelict reaper ship over Lethe? Ugly creatures and their left over shits?" asked Joker. This immediately brought the attention of Shepard, Miranda, Mordin, Garrus and Jacob as they were the ones who had been to that mission to recover the IFF. There they faced sage colored creatures that were horrendous.

"That was a nightmare. Still feel lucky to be alive" replied Jacob.

"Yes, I remember. What of that?" asked Shepard.

"Mordin and myself analyzed the sample readings he took on that dead reaper. From that, we realized that everything related to that sage colored biomass and its associates contains self mutating or adapting parasitic molecules. These molecules can mutate any life form to it's image"

"That's true Shepard, Very tricky, changes the DNA base proteins of a life form to incalculable levels, adapt to any kind of immune system, like a virus with intelligence" Mordin ran his mouth to Shepard in acknowledgement.

"EDI, That doesn't explain why you objected in helping the trapped colonists" said Miranda.

"It's simple. I am reading the same substance in this holding chamber. People trapped in the pods are being exposed to the same sage mist that you encountered in the dead reaper through those pipes" replied EDI threw fits to Shepard. He couldn't believe that this was happening.

"You...mean to say that...This collector base is filled with those same creatures?!" asked Garrus wide eyed.

"EDI, we need to help them!" yelled Shepard.

"Sorry Commander, But we are too late. If we open the pods now, you all will be exposed to the parasite" said EDI. Then suddenly all the pods started to fill with the sage colored mist.

"Damn it! The mist!" yelled Jacob pointing to a pod where a human occupant after being exposed started to violently mutate into an ugly creature of same color. The body, the face, everything changed invidiously with spikes and other tentacles protruding out. But then they turned to a simple bio mass and got sucked away from the bottom tube. Soon, the other pods followed suit. All the people in the pods disappeared as the biomass, leaving nothing.

"SHIT!" yelled Shepard punching the pod twice. Apart from Miranda, Garrus, Jacob and Mordin who understood Shepard's frustration, others were not so cool with what happened. They were terrified at the sight of what happened to everyone in the pods.

"Shepard, what the fuck was that?" asked Jack.

"What happened to those people?" asked Samara who was horrified at the sight.

Shepard relaxed himself with deep breath and then turned to face the crew.

"Team, from now on, be careful and watch your 360. The mist EDI told about? It turns everyone into monsters those who are exposed to and the mutated creatures are equally deadly and stronger. We barely escaped from them the first time" warned Shepard.

"Commander, something tells me that we will face those ugly things in this base too" said Garrus to which Shepard nodded in approval.

"Are biotics effective against these creatures?" asked Samara.

"It is, but still they pack a powerful punch. So don't rely too much-..."

" ***BAM*...*BAM*...**BANG**"** came a loud explosive noise which got everyone's attention. Then suddenly they saw the distant door totally ripped off by a swarm of small sage colored bulbous creatures that had bundled tentacle legs and two tentacles with red tip protruding from the upper body.

'SHIT! Those are the things. Don't let it touch you! Use biotic shields for protection and incendiaries to kill them!" yelled Shepard.

The creatures stormed towards their position. Shepard and everyone started to shoot at those things. Each bullet made a single creature to die by exploding.

"Yuck! What are these things Shepard? Are these things a new collector weapon?" asked Tali.

"I have no idea. But don't let them touch you and they can be killed with sufficient fire power" replied Shepard shooting at the incoming creatures.

Samara and Jack used their biotics to raise a big shield while others stayed inside and used their incendiary ammo through phasic jackets. The bulbous creatures jumped over the shield and fell down as they couldn't penetrate. But their numbers are putting a stress, but not something two most powerful biotics couldn't handle.

"Woah, even for being weak, they put a lot of effort" grunted Jack. Others used their guns and swarmed the bullets at those creatures. As they die more fill it's place and then the situation got even more worse.

Suddenly biped creatures looking like collector soldiers but resembling the sage colored creatures jumped out of nowhere and started shooting at the shields.

"What the hell! Do they belong to them?" asked Thane stunned at the sight of these sage colored soldiers but looking like collectors.

"Must be. But I don't remember these things using guns" said Shepard turning to Garrus, "Garrus, prepare a concussive shot to repel them" ordered Shepard and then talked to samara and Jack who are struggling to maintain the shield as the pressure started to increase.

"Shit! Shepard, how long!? The pressure's becoming intolerant!" gritted Jack.

"I have a plan. Soon as Garrus gives his best shot, use the biotics to repel them completely. You both can do that" said Shepard.

"We all just gonna suck up, if we lose our strength in holding this shield!" yelled Jack.

"Shepard, if that's the plan, then let's do it fast!" Samara said louder. Shepard nodded and turned to Garrus to be on his mark.

"On my mark, Garrus. 3...2...1..DO IT!" barked Shepard. Garrus took aim and shot the concussive rounds that exploded amidst those creatures which flew and died. The pressure in the shields dropped which made Jack and Samara to feel relaxed. Shepard found this to be the best moment.

"DO IT!...NOW!" yelled Shepard. Jack and Samara together charged their biotic energy to full level.

"Hold on everyone!" warned Samara. Everyone ducked to the ground to prevent themselves from being harmed by it's effects.

Then Jack and Samara unleashed a powerful biotic sweep that repelled and annihilated all the creatures in the hall. Thus got freed from that10 minute prison and gladiator fight. Then everyone slowly rose to their feet and knocked the dust out of themselves.

"Hooh! That was close! Hope nobody's hurt?" asked Zaeed reloading his weapon. Jack walked ahead and made her presence known to others.

"Yeah...FUCK THIS! I didn't sign up for this Shit, Shepard!" yelled Jack putting her index finger over his chest plate.

"We never lied anything to you. Right from the beginning I was calling this a suicide mission. Now you object after all you took into that thick skull and went through hell with us!?" asked Shepard raising his voice.

"*Ahem*...Shepard, what you said is true if it had been the collectors. So far, they were a great match but we were alright with that. But these strange things are way above the pay grade" said Kasumi, folding her hands.

Shepard was frustrated as even he didn't expect to see the creatures in this place. Now his fear started to take hold of him as his team members begin to exhibit negative reaction towards the new problem. Shepard had to fix this right or else, this mission will be a suicide with no matter of success or failure.

He walked and climbed a short platform to get to see everyone and talk to them. He began to speak.

"Team, these things may be strong, but they are vulnerable. Besides I am confused how they are in this place" said Shepard trying to bring the situation under control.

"Shepard, There is one thing to be noticed. Those collector soldiers were affected by the same mist. They had all that physical attributes like the ones we faced before" said Miranda changing the subject, but to the right one.

"Yes, I was wondering the same. Do these collector forces already knew of this strange parasite? Is this new parasitic life form, a biological weapon created by the Reapers?" asked Shepard in dilemma.

"In that case we are in for real trouble. So what do we do now, Commander?" asked Garrus.

"EDI, is there anything new we should know? Any signs of this parasite?" asked Shepard.

"Shepard, I managed to enter the collector encrypted channels. A large data stream about this parasite had been on the flow for the past one hour. It seems, the collectors had been experimenting on the parasite. They were trying to build something out of it. The remaining details are vague" replied EDI.

"Let me guess, The people they captured in these pods are their live test subjects" asked Tali feeling disgusted.

"It has to be. This mission has gained a new insight. This parasite is more dangerous than the collectors. If they are experimenting with that, then it means the Reapers are behind them" said Shepard with confidence.

"Shouldn't we notify this to the Illusive man?" asked Jacob which got everyone's attention.

"We will, but not now. I want to know what the collectors were planning with the parasite" replied Shepard, then calling EDI over the comm.

"EDI, What are the available strategic options?"

"The Collector bio-scan signatures show that the whole place is being swarmed by the creatures affected by the parasite. The tubes that took the biomass all converge in to the upper chamber. You need to get there, but someone should guard the hall you're in" said EDI.

"Then this is my decision. I have given the basic combat tactics against these creatures. Use it to defend yourself" said Shepard, then turning to Miranda, "Lawson, you will keep everyone under your command except Tali and Thane. You guys will be defending this zone no matter what" ordered Shepard.

"Don't worry Commander, We'll take care of this" replied Miranda reloading her SMG thermal clip. Tali and Thane walked towards Shepard and stood besides him.

"Under any circumstances, keep the radio in. I want status report every ten minutes" ordered Shepard. Miranda nodded followed by the others.

"EDI, now how to get to the central chamber above?" asked Shepard.

"Walk through the door those creatures came in and then use the platform to your right. It will take you to the central chamber" replied EDI.

"Good, thank you" acknowledged Shepard and cut the channel.

"Alright team, this is it. This is our last stand against the collectors. No matter what the collectors or the Reapers plan are, we'll take the fight to them and kill those ugly bastards for good" said Shepard giving an inspirational speech which made his team to feel the positive aggression. After looking at his team for last two seconds,

"Let's do this" said Shepard who along with Thane and Tali proceeded to walk towards the door whereas his team prepared themselves to fight the inbound enemy.

"Alright, get to cover behind those barriers. Collectors or whatever other creatures are here, they will be here in just few minutes" said Miranda loud to which others acknowledged. Then everybody went to their cover just as told.

Meanwhile Shepard, Thane and Tali reached the next chamber and from there, they saw the floating platform to their right.

"Alright, this is it. This platform will take us to the central chamber above" said Shepard and then glanced at two.

"You guys ready?" asked Shepard.

"We do. No matter what happens her, we are with you in this to the end" replied Thane.

"We will make it Shepard, just like we did with Saren and Sovereign" said Tali. Shepard nodded at them both.

Then the three stepped into the platform and used the console to activate it. The platform separated from the main ground and flew upwards and forward slowly in to the unknown.

 **...**

 **SPARTAN'S BASE**  
 **June 15, 2185**  
 **06:15 AM, GST**

Master chief and his team now including Jorge were already awake and were having a 50 mile jogging within their base which they were about to finish. For the blue team, its always their names when training for their fitness and combat. But when it comes to missions, they maintain their professionalism and Chief is strict when it comes to being professional and that was one of the reason he's well respected by both the higher and lower officers. As of now, they are just training so they can use this time for some brotherly and sisterly talks.

By this time in the morning, the base had already seen quite an activity. All personnel carrying out their work. All the military men and women doing their drill. Other occupants like Sanghelli and Mgalekgolo were doing their thing like checking their weapons and supplies. Former Sanghelli honor guards training with meditation and sword fighting. It may not be a picnic, but definitely worth seeing in early morning...quite a sight for sore eyes.

"John, it's been a long time since our contact with Shepard and his team as well this Alliance and Citadel council. Do you think Shepard might have completed his collector mission?" asked Linda.

"They must have, but we won't know unless we talk to them" replied Fred.

"Besides, we can't spend too much time here. We got a lot of work. We need to help this galaxy fight the reapers and solve the mystery about this traveling to another universe thing" said Kelly.

"Well in that case, I got some thing to tell you all" replied Jorge, the new member of the blue team. After Chief inducted him, he asked Cortana to make him an advanced suit of armor to match the team's current tech strength. Cortana is doing her best to deliver the best.

Jorge got their attention and turned to him while jogging. They were almost near base's fitness facility.

"What is it, Jorge?" asked John. Jorge looked at Chief inscrutably and then answered.

"Just a few more seconds to the gym and I will tell" said Jorge and sprinted fast. Jorge being taller than everyone leapt more than the others. But still this couldn't stop Kelly from beating them all.

"Ha, still you lose brother!" said Kelly excitedly to Jorge. Others came to a halt, a couple second a later. They were looking at Kelly who was enjoying the moment.

"I will personally challenge you sometime, but now I gotta tell you what I meant to" replied Jorge getting to the subject.

"Yes, we're listening" said Fred.

"Lord Hood...He was the one who gave the 'go ahead' signal for this mission" said Jorge.

"I think Capt. Lasky had already told that" replied Linda.

"I wasn't finished. Lord hood trusts us, Lasky, Hasley...Spartans in general. But not ONI" said Jorge which confused the others.

"ONI!?...What does ONI got to do with this?" asked Kelly.

"When Cortana first sent the message to the HIGHCOM bravo, ONI predicted that lord Hood might pull a mission like this" said Jorge.

"So what?" asked Chief.

"The problem is...Hood approved this mission on his own volition, his own risk" said Jorge.

"I don't see how that's a problem. He's the CNO, humanity's most powerful authority figure" said Fred.

"He is, but ONI can dethrone him and worse, even condemn him if they wanted to" said Jorge which stunned the four. They can't believe what Jorge said. Hood's authority was unparalleled and unquestionable. He doesn't have to answer anyone, even the CIC of the ONI. Now they are confused how Hood's career could be in danger.

"Jorge, what you say is nigh impossible" said John without a break.

"Actually they can, John. Hood just sent humanity's most powerful warship equipped with top of the line technology, Infinity, into the unknown. This makes us weak again and unprepared for another brutal fight with any new enemies. If ONI submits this to the senate, then Hood's life is in great danger" said Jorge sounding more serious than ever.

"How can the senate interfere in this matter?" asked Linda. Jorge drew a breath and let a unsymmetrical smile of hopelessness.

"Infinity is one of a kind and the only one of a kind. Currently, no human warships carry the power that infinity does. What lord Hood did would be fabricated as an act of irresponsibility by ONI, a very big one, so that they can remove Hood out of the equation and-..."

"And ONI takes complete control over the HIGHCOM, be it military, recon or intel...Shit!" frowned Kelly. At this moment, John understood everything.

"Now I see why Lasky hesitated to help. He didn't want to put Hood in a bad situation for helping him out. Actually, we all do. Hood trusted us even when he didn't a knew a thing about the situation" said John.

"Actually, Hood trust you four. I wouldn't call it trust, It was faith" said Jorge. This was when the four realized how much Hood had risked his career to help them.

John have always had a special place in his heart for Hood. He trusts Hood like he does with his fellow spartans, Lasky and others before in his life. It had always given him the real reason to fight for, apart from the simple code of a typical soldier. When people keeps faith in the Master chief, they do it because he served as the humanity's beacon of hope when all was lost. Where others gave up, he takes it as a new lead and go on. This mission was no different, Lord Hood was no different, so does Lasky. Not just belief, those people keeps their faith over the blue team and trusts their judgement. John and his team didn't give a second thought about taking this mission on their own, but realized how much they had put Hood in a terrible spot. It is their duty to return the favor.

"Don't worry Jorge, he helped us and we'll return the favor. This is much pressure, but nothing we can't handle" replied Chief.

"Well, I too agree with that. But in order to do that, we need to get this mission done as soon as possible" said Fred. Others nodded in approval.

"But Jorge, How do you know all this? These are something like strict-to-know information" asked Kelly. Jorge chuckled at that and then spoke.

"Well, you of all people should know that myself and Commander Carter got some friends within ONI who can blow the whistle to us" said Jorge which intrigued the four.

"Friends in ONI!? How did you even manage something like that? And who did you two managed to hang out with?" asked Linda.

"Captain Veronica Dare" replied Jorge which stunned the four. Blue team didn't expect this as many of the ODSTs and the Spartan IIs during the war knew more about Dare on contrary to the discretion and isolation she maintains working with section 1.

"Dare? You gotta be kidding me!" exclaimed Fred.

"She is Fred. She is our eyes and ears inside. She tells us what the reptiles are crawling over" said Jorge.

"Jorge, that's simply bull shit. As far as anyone remembers, she is cold and ruthless. Better break the contact for your good" said John expressing his concern.

Even others had the same worry. Veronica Dare serves the ONI section 1 for a long time and he took part in missions set by them. She never revealed complete information about the objectives to the squad she leads on any mission. This makes her quite not trust worthy in nature. But her secret contact with the former noble team members is not exactly intolerant, but unfathomable.

"Since when Jorge?" asked Linda.

"Since 2555. She started to learn what ONI was planning through out after the war that even she didn't like it. She contacted us first who were the only active spartan fire team members to save a sanghelli delegate from a planned assassinations" said Jorge.

"By whom?" asked John curiously.

"By their own. The brutes and elites arranged for a meeting to have a truce between them on the elite world Duraan. ONI saw this as tipping the balance of the scale. So they bribed some of the elite guards and persuaded them to kill their own delegate to stop the meeting" said Jorge which quite made the others feel repulsive.

"Did you succeed in saving him?" asked Kelly.

"No, we were too late. The delegate was killed and ONI succeeded. By 2557, they had been planning something even more big. But Dare couldn't give us clear information" said Jorge.

The four were staggered with this information. They couldn't believe ONI had been operating incognito and plotting against the events that can bring some good.

"Did the Arbiter and his Swords of Sanghelios knew about this?" asked John.

"Yes, but they didn't know it was ONI. It may feel wrong, but we cannot let the elites to take vengeance while this can be corrected by ourselves" replied Jorge. John understood his statements though he didn't like it. Diplomacy may be not his strongest suit, but still he knew that could prevent headaches.

"We need to complete this mission as fast as we can. Then...we got some work to do in our place" said John in an ambitious tone. Others nodded in approval.

Then suddenly Cortana's hologram popped up besides them.

"Hello guyz, take it that you are having a great time. But sorry to disturb the time of your lives" said Cortana.

"All cliche's aside, what is it?" asked John. Cortana's face wasn't in the enjoying mood. She was dead serious about something.

"Actually, we just received a galaxy wide extranet broadcast from the citadel" said Cortana.

"And?" asked Kelly.

"And things don't look good from our standing" replied Cortana. John and the others didn't like the sound of it. Chief was soaked in a lot of thoughts but cast aside all of that and prepared to see this broadcast.

"Right, we'll be there in 20 minutes" said John then turning to face his friends.

"Lets see what this is about"

 **...**

 **Cronos station**  
 **June 15, 2185**  
 **07:45 AM, GST**

Kai leng or the key mind that took his personality decided to go and meet the Illusive man after spending some time inside his quarters. He removed all the suits and just wore the cerberus phantom armor with delumcore visor. There were no odd features in his face that could blow his cover immediately.

 _ **"If this Illusive man has everything we need, then the cycle of fate that runs this galaxy had begun"**_ thought the key mind within Leng's personality. He was ready to face the Illusive man. He left his quarters and reached for the main hall where there's an elevator that takes him to the Illusive man's place by passing all the maintenance access ways.

He then used the main elevator and pressed the console to reach the top floor. He didn't feel a thing about himself or anyone. This entity called the keymind uses his memories to mimic his personalities. But no one knows what this entity is or why is it doing what it's doing.

Leng reached the top floor and the door opened. He stepped out of the elevator and faced the Illusive man's back as he was standing in front of his big holographic screen. He was staring him for a couple of seconds and then slowly walked in.

Illusive man turned his head halfway casually and managed to notice Leng's presence and then took a sip of his wine.

"Leng, its good to see you back, though not pleased with your manners towards Langdon" said the Illusive man.

"I answer to you, sir" replied Leng in a low voice.

"Lets get ahead of all the criticisms, How was the mission. Was it successful? Did you deliver the samples to Horizon facility?" asked Illusive man still looking at the holo screen.

Leng didn't answer, instead kept a stoic face and slowly walked towards him. Illusive man became suspicious. He turned to face Leng approaching him.

"Leng, I asked you a question" said Illusive man pressing his tone. But his words seemed to fall on deaf ears. Leng was just less than half a meter away from him and stopped.

"Leng? What happened to you?" asked TIM now even more suspicious.

"I am sorry sir" said Leng which confused him a lot.

"Sorry!? For what?" asked TIM.

"For this...** **STAB** **" Leng suddenly lifted his right arm and a long and sharp sage colored tentacle claws protruded out and in split second, stabbed the IM in his gut deep such that it came out of his back.

Illusive man instantly spewed out lot of blood from his mouth struggling and crippling in pain. He couldn't even yell in pain. It was as if the life was sucked out of him instantly, mind blurring, visions distorting. He tightly held Leng's right arm for grip trying to release his arm out of his body.

There was nothing for TIM but to simply kneel slowly and fall down, drop dead. That was the end of the cerberus's accomplished leader. Leng was staring at his body and then his body suddenly turned sage colored and the features started to briefly showoff. Then Leng took a knife and then cut his arm deep such that the sage colored blood started to flow out. He then extended his arms above the IM's body and the blood oozed onto him and his stab wound.

Then after pouring out the blood for 5 seconds over the IM's body. He dropped his arms down and stood simply with his body mildly shaking. Then he simply just fell down besides the IM's body, laying lifeless.

"*STATIC*...*STATIC*...Illusive man...come in...This is Shepard...Things are nasty...in the base...We are in serious trouble. I am gonna blow this place up for good, do you get me?...Illusive man, Do you get me?...Shit!" the comm suddenly went alive and came commander Shepard's voice. But unfortunately, there was no one here alive to respond. The comm just went off on it's own.

 **...**

 **Collector base, 1 Hour ago...**

Shepard, Thane and Tali were traveling in a floating platform that was taking them to the upper main chamber where they were about to face the unknown.

"Friends, be careful. We know next to nothing about what's there" said Shepard loading his revenant rifle.

"Don't worry Shepard, We survived this far. We will do it again" replied Tali.

The platform finally reached the upper chamber where there was a large platform and then a huge empty space from top to bottom of the base in front of that. The three looked at the size of the central chamber with a jaw dropped feeling.

"Holy shit! This is the most huge space I've ever seen" said Shepard. The platform came to halt attaching itself to the big platform. Then the three stepped into the platform and walked slowly to take a brief look. Shepard saw a control panel to his far right, apart from that, nothing. They also saw the tubes coming from all direction and went all the way down to the bottom of the base.

"EDI, I see a control panel here on a platform and lots of tubes that carry the biomass and it goes all the way down" said Shepard over the comm.

"Shepard...I...ee...ot of..terference..n't iso..te..he...oise...*STATIC*" the jarred voice came out.

"Shit, something's interfering with the comm. We need to-..."

 _ **"Hm hm hm huh hah hah hah hah hah!..."**_ came a sinistrical laugh in a deep growl voice that echoed throughout the chamber.

"What-The-Hell-Was-That!?" asked Thane. All the three felt pale and goosebumps in fear as if their ghosts had left their shell.

"I can't see where it's coming from" said Tali tensed.

Suddenly the whole place vibrated. The three felt the shake in the platform and it caused physical discomfort to them. Then a huge creature whose body resembles the loch-ness monster and with lot of tentacles protruding out of it like tree branches, suddenly rose above and flexibly moved it's body to turn and face the three. It's body was the same sage colored as the strange creatures.

Shepard, Tali and Thane were looking at the giant creature that had a 4 mandible like things which was assumed as it's mouth.

"Holy shit! Now what!?" said Shepard in fear and dilemma.

For the first few seconds the creatures and the three were staring at each other. Then it spoke by moving it's mandibles

 _ **"Awaken from the grave and now time to greet the visitors"**_ the creature said. This threw fits to the three. For Shepard and his team, this creature talking was out of the realm of possibility. This creature's ability to talk in English almost perfectly, though struggling to speak fast was stunning but Shepard was relieved that this thing could be conversed with.

"Who or what are you?" asked Shepard wide eyed. The creature grunted and responded

 _ **"I am nothing but an empty shell with million minds to think. I see 3 different species in front of me standing in unison. I longed for your coexistence. Now our job is made easy"**_ replied the creature.

"What are you talking about? That's not the answer to my question. What are you doing here?" asked Shepard frustrated. But this time, it gave him the needed response.

 _ **"We are the Gravemind. We exist in this galaxy for millions of years"**_ replied the creature.

"What exactly is your role?" asked Tali.

 _ **"We had been monitoring this galaxy for the last 10 million years after we arrived here from our place. We watched over you grow, advance and fall to your worst nightmares that was plaguing the milky way for almost a billion years"**_ replied the creature.

"So you don't belong to our place. But you said 10 million years and this...nightmare" said Shepard to which the creature let out a mocking laughter sound.

 _ **"Reapers...Isn't that what you all fear?"**_ asked the creature which stunned the three and they share a hasty glance towards each other in confusion and shock.

"What the hell!? How did it know about the reapers?" thought Shepard.

"How do you know about the reapers?" asked Shepard in fear as this thing seems to know a lot of things.

 _ **"We watched them harvesting the previous races the day we came here...And wondered who created such powerful instruments. They came to this galaxy every 50,000 years to harvest the advanced races that stagnate in evolution leaving the primitives to grow. We began to study the reapers for the next century and learned what kind they are"**_ replied the creature.

"Do you know who they are?" asked Shepard.

 _ **"Only that they harvest life as a means to preserve them in their image so that the primitive behavior of destroying yourself with the tools you create can be prevented. But...their actions were more useful for us. Through them, we found our salvation, a way to exist in this universe after a brutal war we had in our place"**_

"I don't quite understand that statement" said Shepard to which the creature gave grim chuckle and spoke.

 _ **"We found the reapers in their hiding place, the dark space and engaged them. We persuaded them and it wasn't a day work. It took 100 years of conversation to make them understand our purpose, our goal. We and the reapers have one thing in common, to create life in a image we wished"**_ replied the creature. Shepard took few steps front and talked.

"That means-..."

 _ **"That means, the reapers serve us for the past 10 million years. They are our tools, our instruments to the salvation of all sentient lives. The harvestation will continue forever"**_ replied the creature which stunned the three.

"Blasphemy! Shepard, these things control the reapers. THEY are our real enemy" said Tali, bug eyed.

"You had the power to make the reapers submit to you. You could have stopped this atrocity!" yelled Shepard. The gravemind laughed so hard at the foolish statement.

 _ **"What gave you this foolish sentimentality? Perhaps, we are indeed helping you. No matter the place, all the lives are capable of destroying themselves and I've seen it a lot. But this harvestation will stop that and turn you all in our image and gets absorbed into us. The reapers are coming to this galaxy and there's nothing you can do to stop them. Our master will see to it"**_ replied the creature which confounded the three. They instantly felt that something worse about to happen to them.

"So these green creatures we are seeing for the past few days, Are they part of you?" asked Shepard, the last question he wanted the answer to.

 _ **"Yes, that is where we came from in the beginning. Now nothing will stop our evolution"**_ replied the creature.

"We will stop you from killing everyone! We will destroy every single one of you!" yelled Shepard angrily which got it's attention.

 _ **"You can do nothing. Prepare for your demise, Hm hm hm huh hah hah hah!"**_ finished the creature amused at the primitive emotion and went back to the bottom of the base.

Suddenly lots of sage colored monsters, bipeds, quadpeds, arthropods and bulbous creatures all swarmed and converged to their position over the platform.

"Shepard, those things are closing on us" said Tali tensed.

"Damn! Stay close with me!" barked Shepard and then opened a big biotic dome shield covering the three. The creatures jumped over the shield, putting pressure on it. The creatures screamed obnoxiously that was irritating. Shepard grunted in the stress he was subjected to but he charged to full level and released a powerful biotic explosion that killed many creatures around them. But Shepard felt tired because of the large amount of energy he used.

The creatures were again gathering in numbers and running towards them.

"Team, get to the higher ground and use barricades for cover. We have keep them 10 metres away from us. Use incinerators and explosives" said Shepard. Then the team went to the higher platform where there were barricade to take covering positions.

The three took different covering positions and started firing at the incoming creatures with incinerator rounds. Tali used omni-tool drones over the creatures to make greater kill count. Shepard unloaded his revenant rifle continuously until the heat sink overloaded. Thane used sniper shots to kill them.

"Shepard to Miranda, How are things on your side?" asked Shepard over the comm. meanwhile a quadped leapt towards him. Shepard immediately grabbed his shotgun with his left hand and put a round on it that repelled it back. Then he maneuvered to his assault h=gun and unleashed the rounds on them. The incinerator rounds pierced and burned them.

"Shepard, these things have surrounded us...*GUN SHOTS*... We'll manage but not for long time...Joker, get the shuttle for immediate extraction to our position" said Miranda, cutting the channel.

"We will be there in 15 minutes, then we gotta pick up Shepard and his team" replied Joker.

"Team, listen to this carefully, I'm gonna rig the central chamber with explosives to blow this base...Joker get us fast" said Shepard and cut the channel.

Shepard now having recharged quite a bit, used shock wave ability which made series of ground pounding towards the creatures that threw them to greater heights. Then the three continuously fired at the creatures that tried hard to get near them. So far they had managed , but this luck won't hold them for longer time. They had to do something and do it fast.

"Tali, I've got a fission pellet for the M-920 Cain. I'm gonna use it blow the base's power core from here. That will destroy this whole both maintain your positions here" ordered Shepard.

"Fine, be careful and good luck" replied Tali.

Then Shepard crossed Tali to his right and to the right side of the platform. He hid behind a rocky wall and shot at the creatures which burned and died. Suddenly, 3 bipeds and some bulbous creatures found Shepard and hit him in a surprise attack and threw him to his left out of the cover.

They all jumped over him to attack, but Shepard reflexively used the shield to repel them. Then he dodged and shot the assault rifle to kill the bulbous creatures. But the biped stormed over him and knocked the rifle out of his hand and punched him. Shepard fell back with force and already saw them ready to kill him. He reflexively took out his geth shotgun and shot 3 times that killed the 3 bipeds.

He then gathered himself and carried the rifle and sprinted towards the control panel to charge the fission detonator inside it.

"*STATIC*...*STATIC* Illusive man, come in. This is Shepard. Things are nasty in the base. We are in serious trouble. I am gonna blow this place up for good, do you get me? Illusive man, Do you get me?...Shit!" Shepard used the comm to contact the Illusive man on the way but he didn't get the response.

"Damn, Looks like we are on our own" said Shepard to himself and proceeded to run towards the panel. Tali managed to kill some creatures that were about to kill Shepard.

He then open the panel. A cylindrical shaped power conduit carrier projected out of the floor. Shepard used the fission detonator and primed it. The pellet blinked in red light. He then used the console to close the conduit and sprinted towards Tali and Thane's position.

"The explosive is primed for detonation, we need to get the hell outta here" said Shepard and then called joker over the comm.

"Joker, you there? We need you for extraction on the double. Hurry!" yelled Shepard.

"Aye aye commander, be there in 45 seconds. others are safe and secured" replied Joker and cut the comm.

"You heard the man. Now let's get to that position to our left. That's the only place, Normandy can come down" said Shepard to which they nodded and then the three sprinted towards the left side over the lower platform near the empty space. The creatures followed them to their positions. The three stopped and started shooting the creatures while waiting for Normandy.

"Shepard... ***GUNSHOTS***...Did you record these events, I think there are... ****GUNSHOTS****...people out there who might be interested in this" said Tali while shooting at the creatures.

"I have already done that-...*GUNSHOTS*...I have a plan" said Shepard shooting at the creatures. He also used biotic shock wave and flare to make greater kill count. The monsters were already closing on them. It was the easy fire power that was barely keeping them at bay.

45 seconds later, suddenly they heard an engine roaring sound. Shepard turned to see the Normandy approaching their position and aligning the entrance towards them and neared the platform.

"Tali, Thane! Get inside" barked Shepard. The Normandy doors opened with Garrus and Jack standing there providing fire support. Tali was helped by Garrus in climbing the door, followed by Thane helped by Jack. After assuring their safety, Shepard decided to leave the place and started running towards the door.

But suddenly a big sage colored pod came crashing in front of him with a big explosion that collapsed the platform and it broke and buckled in half. Shepard lost his balance.

"Shit! Whooaa...AAAHHHH!" Shepard slipped out of the broken platform and fell down.

"Damn! Shepard!...Joker, Shepard has fallen down from the collapsed floor. Get us another way!" yelled Garrus.

"On it! EDI, find Shepard and a way to bring him back out of the debris" said Joker running his hands on the console.

"Scanning...Found him. He's on the lower platform getting recovered from that position" replied EDI.

...

Shepard slowly opened his eyes and the vision slowly cleared and found himself trapped under a peice of the platform.

" ***COUGH***... ***COUGH***... ***GRUNT***..." Shepard slowly, painfully lifted the piece and threw it to his side. Then he slowly got to his feet looking everywhere at the mess. The place was already shaking and there were things burning everywhere.

"Shit, now to find a way" thought Shepard. But his luck, the comm came alive.

"Shepard, It's Joker. EDI's got a lock on you. Get to the other side of the platform using the ladder near by you" said Joker. Shepard slowly turned to face the ladder a meter away.

"Right, soon as I get to the top side, I'll call you back" replied Shepard and cut the channel. Then he used the ladder to climb the platform and after a minute, he reached the top platform.

He stepped on the floor and was directly looking at the creatures that were roaring at him and started running towards him. Shepard started sprinting in response to escape.

"Joker! Come in"

Then the Normandy once again reached the platform and opened the front door. Shepard saw that and sprinted at high speed to reach the vessel before these things catch up to him.

"Commander, quick. The base got just a minute to turn to ash!" said Joker tensed. Shepard focused more on getting to the Normandy without minding those creatures. Suddenly he found himself near the edge and found no option but to leap over the vessel.

Shepard jumped and flew towards the vessel. He finally managed to grab the floor and was hanging outside. Garrus lent his hand in getting him inside and the door was closed.

Shepard hurried to the cockpit and spoke.

"Joker, get us the hell outta here on the double!"

Joker didn't respond, instead used the Normandy's weapons to punch a hole in the inner hull that blew a hole directly to the space. Joker immediately accelerated the ship at top speed through that hole and got out of the Collector base.

After getting a few miles away from it, they managed to see a lot of minor explosions on the hull and finally the base blew itself from the center like a star and the explosion expanded at great speed.

"Engaging the mass effect core" said Joker after which the Normandy entered the mass free space into FTL travel.

Everyone drew a long breath to relax themselves. Shepard gently patted Joker's shoulder.

"Great job Joker! Great job" congratulated Shepard. Then he slowly turned to Garrus who was standing besides him.

"Nice of you to take down the collectors. So what's next?" asked Garrus. Shepard removed his blood dragon armor helmet and his face was serious.

"Garrus, this is just the beginning. We got reapers and this new creatures that control them. We gotta stop them. See you later all at the hanger bay" replied Shepard and he left the cockpit. But again stopped and turned.

"EDI, Did you manage to establish contact with the Illusive man?" asked Shepard.

"I had been trying that for an hour. But my efforts are futile. His comm is intact but he's not responding" replied EDI. Shepard's face turned confused and suspicious. He felt something was not right and that the Illusive man would never let this go out of his hand. he invested a lot in this, but now he appears to be carefree.

"I'll see to this later" thought Shepard and left the place.

...

After 1 hour, Shepard now in his commander uniform, reached the hanger bay where his team including Joker watched him approaching them. They all cheered for him for successfully completing the mission with zero casualties.

"That was one hell of an ass kickin, Shepard" said Zaeed.

"It was an honor fighting alongside you" said Samara.

"Now it's time for a vacation" said Grunt.

"No" replied Shepard which drew silence among his team.

"The collectors are defeated, but in their place, we got not only the reapers, but also a new problem. These new creatures we faced are parasites, but they seem to evolve themselves by turning people into one of them. Now they control the reapers. We need act now. It is time we prepared ourselves for the greater cause" said Shepard.

"So what do we do now?" asked Miranda. Shepard took a moment to respond.

"You all were obligated to be in my team to fight the collectors. Now that the mission is over, You all can go your separate ways. The alliance people in this vessel had to go to earth" said Shepard.

By that time, the Normandy exited the FTL into the omega nebula itself.

"Thanks Shepard. Besides I got some important work that needs to be taken care off" replied Miranda. Shepard nodded in acknowledgement. There was only murmuring sounds of his team members conversing with one another. Then EDI came to life.

"Commander Shepard, You have received a top priority call from the Alliance brass" said EDI. Shepard was stunned to hear that. he never expected to receive a call from the alliance.

"Who's that?" asked Shepard.

"It's Admiral Steven Hackett. It's urgent" replied EDI. Shepard then understood everything as to why he received this call. He knew it was time to face the music.

He gave a concerned look towards Joker who did the same and shrugged his shoulder.

"Alright Joker, I think it's time"

 **...**

 **Cronos Station**  
 **June 15, 2185**  
 **09:00 AM, GST**

Illusive man was killed by his personal assassin Kai Leng was laying dead on the floor along side the rotten Leng's body.

Suddenly the Illusive man opened his eyes wide and he slowly turned his body and got to his feet struggling to move. He slowly got to see his arms like they were new and the first time he saw them. His bare hands slightly turned translucent with sage colored features slightly visible beneath the skin. He then downed his head to look at his abdomen wound to see that the wound wasn't there. He then lifted his head up and relaxed his neck muscles by stretching them.

He then stared at the empty space and then let a grim smirk.

 _ **"Too much of knowledge, Too much for a primitive. Now I'll take that"**_ spoke the IM in a deep growling grim tone. It was clear that the IM wasn't human anymore. He then slowly walked towards the window where the star was visible.

 _ **"At last, I have everything I need to know of this galaxy. It is time I watched the cycle of fate continued to spin once more. I will grow as long as I can to depart this galaxy. It is time I released the instruments of salvation into the stars from the abyss. Soon...I SHALL FEAST!...Hm hm hm..."**_ said the IM, his eyes turning sage colored.

The key mind had transferred it's control form Leng's body to the IM's body to gain lot of knowledge through his memories as Illusive knew almost many things about this galaxy and what and where things are happening. The key mind gained a lot from him.

 _ **"This primitive host will serve me till the harvest and I shall use this human as a conduit to control my actions safely. Through him I can achieve a lot"**_ said the key mind in the IM's body who continued to stare at the star.

 **...**

 **Spartan's base**  
 **June 15, 2185**  
 **06:45 AM, GST**

Chief and the blue team after their workout, took bath and had their breakfast. Then they prepared to wear their armor using the assembly drones. Chief wore his Mark VI **/** Class 12 hybrid armor with his helmet on. The others wore their respective armor. Jorge was in due to get a new suit.

Then they all gathered in the hall.

"So let's see what Cortana had been to" said Chief and then five walked out to Lasky's quarters where Cortana asked them to assemble.

Chief and his team entered Lasky's quarters only to find Palmer, Carter, Marcus and the Arbiter. They all turned to see the blue team approaching them. The room was big with lots of stuff, a captain would enjoy.

"Ah, glad you are here, blue team" greeted Lasky. The blue team immediately stood in attention and delivered a crisp salute to their commanding officer. Lasky returned the salute and asked them to at ease.

"Still no need for the formalities, Chief. Especially not now" said Lasky with a smile.

"Greetings Spartans" greeted Arbiter.

"Good to see you Arbiter" replied Fred.

"I assume we are called here for a reason, Sir" said John. Lasky still felt uncomfortable when the Chief called him 'Sir' as he considered him more as a friend than his subordinate. But he knew that he was strict to his protocols which he always respected. But lately Lasky had been advising Chief to be more human than a machine.

"You know? You don't have to be a soldier all the time. But let's get to that point" said Lasky turning serious.

"Cortana, why did you call us?" asked Lasky in a commanding tone. Cortana's hologram popped up in front of them. Cortana didn't waste time and talked.

"At 06:00 hours, I managed to intercept an extranet broadcast from the citadel news network" said Cortana.

"A broadcast? What makes it important for us to watch?" asked Carter.

"Some politician crap, maybe?" asked Palmer with a jest, folding her hands.

"In a way. You are right, Commander. Watch this" said Cortana who then brought a big holo screen in front of them. Everyone were eager to listen to this.

Then video broadcasting played.

 _"Good morning to every citizen of this Citadel and the colonies of this galaxy, This is chief extranet news reporter Emily Wong of the Citadel news network, at your daily service"_

 _"At 06:00 hours, this morning, the Turian councilor Sparatus of the council chambers presented a recording of his own for all the citizens of this galaxy. It is now played for your reference"_

 **"Greetings citizens of the Milky way, this is high councilor Sparatus of the citadel council. This message is directed towards the strange new comers of this galaxy who appeared a month ago and another group that appeared a few weeks back"**

Everyone's face in the hall turned confused and slightly terrified as they knew the councilor referred to them.

 **"Ever since you people stepped into this galaxy, peace had been degrading. You carry strange technologies and fire power never seen before and give us the crap that you are from another universe. But I refuse to believe that"**

"What the hell?! Is he crazy?" stunned Lasky including the others.

 **"We the councilors, suspect that you are lying to hide the fact that systems alliance is developing illegal technologies at our blind spot to seize control or intimidate the council"**

"This is is bullshit! Have they lost their nuts?" asked Linda.

 **"With all due respect, I am very much happy to say that your plans are nothing but fools errand. An entire Turian military is enough to upset the balance in the galactic power. We can hunt you down to the last if we manage to find you"**

"This is getting worse!" said Marcus.

 **"But I'm a man of mercy. So I have made a decision. I am officially ordering you to appear before the council in 30 days time. In case of failure to appear?...Hm...The Turian hierarchy will officially declare war upon you and the systems alliance for this treachery...The clock's ticking!"** the Turian councilor finished his message and the video cut back to the news anchor.

 _"Well, we all heard the councilor Sparatus's message. There had been quite a stir among the people as to whether they would appear or not as systems alliance's safety is at stake. Stay tuned for more as this is Emily Wong from the Citadel news Network, will be right back in a couple of minutes"_

With that, the holo screen went off and there were a tension in the hall as nobody liked what just happened.

"Shit! Now we are in for real trouble. Are these bird heads always this dumb? asked Marcus irately.

"The council thinks we are splinter group of this universe's human race. Never seen such a foolishness. After all the evidences the spartans provided them, still they accuse us for heresy?! This madness must be stopped" said Arbiter angrily.

"Arbiter's right. I don't like this one bit. They charge us and unnecessarily drag this systems alliance government who had nothing to do with this. This is an unnecessary headache" said Lasky who tensed and angry with this announcement.

"Then I think it's time we paid them a visit. Blue team can lead us to that place" said Palmer. Lasky kept his finger over his chin thinking deep to decide their next step. He was wild eyed in this issue as one wrong step could cost everyone a lot. So diplomacy is a must in this situation.

He then stood up and turned to face the Chief. Then he sighed with mild sadness and spoke,

"Chief, let's say we go and meet them and explain ourselves. What then? What if they didn't listen?" asked Lasky. He asked this question to the blue team because they had already acquainted with the council before their arrival and knew them quite to some extent. Every one looked at them for a reply. Chief took his time to think and respond. He then made a decision and talked.

"Sir, if they don't listen to us, then we'll make them to" said Chief, his voice slightly deeper. Palmer was excited as she too had the same idea. Lasky without a choice nodded in approval.

 **...**

 **A/N: That's it. With this, the ME2 story line gets over and the prelude to ME3 starts.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Xypher1: No, Precursors and Leviathans are not related. Perhaps, Flood is the only connection between Halo and ME universe. Chief's other imprint is his Ancestor by blood.**

 **edboy 4926: There won't be Andromeda initiative, but I think I can do something about Ryder at the right time.**

 **Fer82: Actually, Reapers and Flood are not partners. Reapers are totally under the control of the Flood.**

 **And I made a mistake with Dare's rank. Instead of Captain, I used Lieutenant Colonel . I was confused with a different source, but I have corrected it.**

 **For those who think Sparatus had lost his mind, It's simple. He indeed lost his mind and definitely gonna get his A$$ chained up in a Turian asylum.**

 **This story is a long term mission set by the Librarian 100,000 years ago which she failed to do. The current people investigates who and why they created a portal to this place from their universe. I'm telling this for those who are mildly confused. No need to relate any character b/w Halo and ME universe.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own ME or Halo franchise.**

 **Chapter 19: Uncertain future**

 **UNSC HighCOM facility Bravo-6, Sydney**  
 **September 15, 2557**  
 **19:27 PM EST**

Lord Terrence Hood, UNSC Chief of Naval Operations was seated in a chair leaning over a medium sized table with a holo-computer upon. He was working on the computer that displayed lots of information with several images. Some had buildings, some had images of the shipyards etc., along with multiple live feeds that he was scrolling down with all that eagerness in his eyes.

It had been almost 2 months since he sent John-117 and his blue team on a mission to Halo-03 to check on the status of the previous team, black. For long, he never received any status feed on the team. And all of a sudden, Cortana popped from elsewhere with a pre-recorded message for which the UNSC comm officers couldn't strangely detect the source. She also seemed to be free of rampancy.

Hood was stunned and slightly felt happy to see one of the UNSC's important asset alive and intact. While having those luxuries on one side, the message she carried along brought a great unrest. The message had vague details, except the fact that she somehow rendezvoused with blue team and also set themselves on a new mission. As Cortana's message also bluntly stated that the team had completed their previous mission, he signed it off though still he expects to get a word of confirmation from the spartan himself.

This new mission they had set themselves in was prickling him. Though Hood has a deep respect for John-117 as a soldier and the spartan IIs in general for their memorable service to humanity, still the blue team's self assignment seeded lots of doubts and confusions in his mind.

He nor the UNSC have any idea of where they were headed except...An Artifact, so strange found by the Swords of Sanghelios led by the Arbiter in the Lagoon nebula, while hunting for the loyalist faction still at large. Through the Arbiter, he learned that the Master chief and his team had taken a vessel and made it through the portal, which was the Artifact's true nature.

He doesn't have even the rough details about the nature of mission or who had constructed the Artifact and for what intended purpose. The Separatists identified it as a portal so he assumed it to be safe as it was created by someone unknown and the worst part was, it wasn't the forerunners as covenant luminaries detected.

Taking the above mentioned facts, Hood used his power and rank to send humanity's most powerful ship and an escort fleet along with a part of Fleet of Retribution through the portal with out even knowing where it would lead them. This will definitely cause a major backlash directed towards him both political and militaristic. ONI will try to catch his neck when they get this kind of opportunities.

But, is that the case?...because, as of now, he's too damn relaxed, having no fear of what might happen or what's at stake for him. While the general perspective he has about the Chief that he always does the right thing is all and good, but his actions were not entirely hinged on that.

Hood was still wearing the military uniform even in his personal quarters. That was when the display screen over the wall besides the door beeped with a green alert message. Hood understood who it was and then said a code word to allow the door to open.

The door opened only to reveal an officer, a woman dressed in a greyish black business casuals, an officer such that anyone would say, she comes from a covert intel group or network. She had a blonde hair color and a face of someone in early 40s. At the shoulder sleeve of the black leather jacket, there was a symbol of a pyramid shield circumscribed over a circle that reads, 'Office of Naval Intelligence'.

She was Captain Veronica Dare, Naval commissioned officer and current leader of section 1, whose specialty is intel gathering and forwarding it to UNSC, code breaking through espionage.

"Welcome, Ms. Naval Intelligence" greeted Hood to which she smirked and then entered his quarters. The door closed behind and additional lights were turned on. She then took a chair and sat upon it facing Hood. Hood was seated in the same position with the terminal.

"Thanks for coming, Dare" said Hood.

"My pleasure, though I can't say for sure, how long can I play hide and seek with Osman" said Dare with a sigh. Hood was able to understand her frustration.

"So what the others are thinking about me?" asked Hood. Dare looked at him fixed and replied.

"They are just waiting for a perfect opportunity to throw you out of the security council, Sir" said Dare. Hood turned to look at her raising his eyebrows.

"What do you think?" asked Hood again turning to face the computer terminal. Dare wasn't amused with whatever Hood did.

"Sir, I'm equally concerned. You just sent Infinity to God knows where to bring Master chief and his team back. You know that 'our' people got some sway over her. This could turn into shit storm beyond control" said Dare with concern.

Hood was still relaxed and never displayed any emotion in his face. He was still working on that terminal stretching his arms. Dare dismissively nodded looking at him.

"You are awfully relaxed, sir!" said Dare in a raised voice and folding her hands. Hood stopped his hands and looked at Dare with a firm commanding stare.

"There are things that even your intelligence office don't know, including Osman" said Hood. Dare was confused with that statement. She wondered what he meant by that.

"I don't quite understand that. There's nothing that can hide from ONI" replied Dare with a certain firmness.

"No, that's not true. The whole HighCOM is castigating me for what!?...Sending the one and only powerful ship to a place unknown?...Then you are deeply mistaken" said Hood which stunned Dare and shrunk her eyebrows in suspicion. She clearly found out from his passive speech that he had been doing something under everyone's nose.

"What's your point, Admiral?" asked Dare feeling tired of this already.

"UNSC Infinity is not the only ship of it's kind. That, is my point" said Hood which made her eyes widened in surprise.

"Not one of a kin-...!?" Dare stumbled while nodding dismissively. She couldn't find words. This is the first time she felt like being kept in dark despite being an ONI officer.

ONI has a bizarre reputation of working in shadows and stalking the prey at the unexpected place and time. But at the times of war, it had served it's purpose that also ensured humanity's survival against the brutal onslaught. But anyone would say that they knew better options than to trust an ONI officer. But ONI would like it that way.

Hood laughed with sarcasm and then spoke.

"Dare, when Infinity was put into service by March 2553 declaring a successful operational record, On June 2553, I secretly ordered the UNSC Science, Engineering and Technology crew to start building another Infinity class ship but not in the Oort cloud this time"

Dare immediately flew out of the chair in shock. She couldn't believe what she just heard from the leader of UNSC. With the available technology, The UNSC began construction of the first Infinity by 2544. That was the early stages of studying Forerunner and Covenant technology thus it took 9 years for them to complete. ONI took all the steps to ensure the secrecy of this project though couldn't maintain he cover for a long time which forced them to advance their schedule for completion.

"Sir, Infinity is a prototype vessel with the implementation of more advanced technology for the first time" said Dare bug eyed.

"Yes, a prototype. Energy shields, energy weapons and...A Forerunner slipspace drive" said Hood. That got dare off guard as she knew what he was talking about.

"Of course Sir, I was the one to confirm a working Forerunner slipspace engine on Trevelyan after Halsey's science explored deep inside" said Dare.

Veronica was the ONI officer who actually confirmed the presence of a working Forerunner slipspace drive on the Shield world Onyx when she was informed of Halsey's team uncovering an active Forerunner complex. She relayed this information to the CINCONI who then proceeded to take measures in helping UNSC to directly retrofit the engine into Infinity with the assistance of Huragoks when they did not succeed in studying the engine's capability.

"You did. But there were things you didn't know...Answer me this. Was it necessary to put a Forerunner engine in to Infinity?" asked Hood which confused her a lot. She was wondering whether this was rhetorical question or not, but proceeded to reply anyway.

"Of course, That z- prototype has capabilities beyond imagination as what the egg heads said" replied Dare to which he nodded disapprovingly with a coy.

"No" said Hood, typing something in his terminal and bringing the image of a human scientist in his personal computer with lots of information written besides it. Dare instantly caught her eyes on him and identified the man. He had a pair of specs, a blonde hair and a visible scar of a knife cut in his right cheek.

"Recognize this person?" asked Hood.

"I do. It's Dr. Howard Brown from department of advanced theoretical physics in Draco III" replied Dare.

This man was a renowned civilian scientist and a friend and colleague of doctor Halsey. Catherine used to say that Brown was even more intelligent and experienced than her, though the age difference was only marginal. She also used to say that his knowledge in Slipspace physics is unparalleled and even unconventional for humanity itself comparing it to the understanding of gravity between Issac Newton and Albert Einstein. He was a major contributor for the theory of existence of parallel and alternate realities along side Doctor Halsey.

"I don't want to get too technical into this, so I'll keep it short" replied Hood to which she nodded and eagerly waited for Hood to speak.

"Back on 2551, this man developed a theoretical back ground for an advanced Slipspace engine by manipulating the existing laws of slipspace physics. But he said that UNSC and Covenant don't have the tools and technology to make this theory into real design which will continue to stay as a theory for ages to come unless we took an initiative" said Hood to which Dare acknowledged as she too knew that news. She was well aware of that theory and even knew that it had been published in the journals.

"I know that. But he also said that, even the forerunner engines are not 100% accurate and that there's always quite a flaw which can still pass in the Forerunner's scale. What of that, now?" asked Dare. Hood cleared his throat and talked.

"When the Forerunner drive on Trevelyan was found, an attempt to study the engine was done, but due to lack of better equipment and facilities, that was a total failure. But Brown had his doubts that coincidentally, that engine could have a probability of ending up as his own theoretical work unknown to anyone including himself" said Hood.

Dare looked down in suspicion and again seated back in her chair, slowly thinking hard about what he just said. If she correctly interpreted his statement, it means humans [Dr. Brown] had the potential to construct a drive powerful enough on par with the Forerunners if there had been enough resources and construction technology at their disposal and she was amazed at that idea.

"But, that all changed last month" said Hood with a smile.

"How?" asked Dare.

"After Infinity found the Master chief on Requiem by July, I sent 18 spartan IV soldiers along with the entire 35th brigade and 68th shock troop division in the Autumn class cruiser UNSC _Event Horizon_ on August 12 to the same world" said Hood.

"And you think I don't know that? That ship was stationed at Epsilon Indi system until then" said Dare raising her eyebrow. Hood nodded and proceeded.

"Yes, The science division aboard was led by none other than our respected Dr. Brown" replied Hood. Dare was confused why he would do that. After Didact escaped Requiem, that place has got nothing but swarms of mindless prometheans, if not some potential Forerunner technology.

"Why would you send them there, now?" asked Dare dilemma.

"According to Chief's debriefing, That planet's got a wealth of Forerunner tech to study. When I directed this information to Dr. Brown, he was highly interested to see it by himself. So I sent them back to that place" said Hood.

"Splendid! And did they find anything?" asked Dare curiously.

"Apart from swarms of promethean forces which our soldiers managed with little casualties, the science team found-..." said Hood typing something in the terminal to reveal the display of a strange, big granite colored cuboidal object that had orange light patterns and many contour profiles and shapes in the edges and surfaces.

"This!" finished Hood. Dare focused her eyes towards the object trying to figure out what it was.

"What's that?" asked Dare looking at him.

"That is a slipspace translocation device that powers the Requiem's portal network. And there's our kick! A realistic technology in existence that coincidentally, perfectly matches Howard's theory" said Hood which stunned Dare and again glanced at the device.

"Ever since Infinity's commissioning, we happened to have pretty advanced scanners, imaging systems in our hands and using that, it just took only 1 hour for him to unveil the resources needed by studying the artifact" said Hood.

"So I take it that he reverse engineered the artifact to work as a slipspace drive?" asked Dare on a hunch. Hood laughed at the statement and leaned forward from his seat and spoke.

"Why should we reverse engineer when we can make one by ourselves!? Brown had already soft modeled a design of his own" asked Hood cryptically.

"And what about the resources to build?" asked Dare.

"That translocation device itself will serve as a raw material for the prototype, thus no need to go and search a long way ahead" replied Hood.

Dare was astounded with the information that UNSC scientists under guidance of Dr. brown had already designed a slipspace engine on par with the Forerunners with out reverse engineering their technology, let alone manipulating it. This is really a big leap for not just UNSC but the entire humanity. If humans are capable of such significant engineering feats, then from that moment on, Humanity never have to rely heavily on Forerunner or Covenant technology for their own advancements like they did previously. All these time, humans lacked the necessary resources and tools to build such advanced technologies. But...Time seems to be changing, that was what she felt.

"Is it complete?" asked Dare eagerly.

"In 2 weeks" replied Hood.

"And where's the other Infinity's being build? Also it took us a hell of a time to gather materials to make the first one" said Dare. Hood acknowledged that statement as what she said was true. Construction of Infinity wasn't a regular pushover job like other vessels.

"Remember Heian?" asked Hood. Dare's face fixed in the reminder of events that happened during the war.

UNSC sent a spartan named Cal-141 and a team of ODSTs to an unknown planet in the uncharted system. That planet was Heian. Covenant forces used it as a supply logistics base. To break the chain, the Spartans and ODSTs sabotaged the entire base at the cost of lives of the spartan and an ODST checkman.

On their hunt, they found strange ruins of buildings with Greco-Roman design, east Asian and middle eastern themes. Post war, Department of Xenoarcheological studies at Edinburgh university studied the photographs of ruins and weirdly found Human architectures wondering if anyone borrowed from them or the other way around.

After that, Several teams, both military and science team were sent to Heian for detailed study of the planets and found it was highly rich in dense minerals. On that day, Section 1 of ONI classified the location of the planet.

"I know that place. Our section classified it's location after finding wealth of dense materials long back" replied Dare.

"This 2nd Infinity class ship is being built on that planet utilizing it's vast enriched resources. UNSC materials research group stationed there even researched and developed a new Titanium-AX material twice denser and stronger than A3. This new ship has consumed a lot yet only a negligible portion of what's available on the ground" said Hood.

Then he revealed the images of the construction of the new Infinity ship which Dare curiously watched as it scrolled by and finally the finished vessel, that's ready for supply and commissioning.

"Huh, I take those words back, Sir. This galaxy is indeed safe" replied Dare sarcastically with a smile still glaring at the images of the ship.

"Sweet! We just finished a ship in just 4 years that too quite bigger than the first one" excitedly Dare said.

"When and his team finishes the drive, it will be fitted and will be 100% operational" said Hood.

It had become obvious that Humanity is becoming stronger and that too in a short time. It's true that human advancements were more and more rapid during the war and post war periods compared to their natural evolution for several thousand years.

But when all seemed fine for everyone, free of conflicts for quite some years, It is not still known why Hood prudently acted out of command to construct a powerful warship immediately after the first one. Is it the only other one? or are there more?

"That's all well and good. So who's gonna be the commanding officer for that ship?" asked Dare, getting to the crux of the conversation.

Hood got up from his seat and walked around the room slowly with his hands tied at back. Dare was simply gazing at him for his response.

"Who do you think?" asked Hood.

"Well, any naval veteran officer?" asked Dare, empty minded.

"No, That person is here in this room" abstrusely replied Hood. Dare instantly got the idea of whom it might be. There were only two of them in that room, so she made the natural selection.

"You? I thought you were the Chief of naval operations. When did you step down in responsibility?" asked Dare confused. Hood smirked and looked at her.

"I never said it was me" said Hood to which at first, Dare looked puzzled but her face slowly turned oblivious as she almost figured who it was and she was pissed off.

"Me? ME? You wanted 'ME' to command that vessel?" asked Dare shocked to the core. Hood was still relaxed at her expression.

"Why shouldn't you be?" asked Hood with a jest.

"With all due respect Sir, that's no way gonna happen" flared Dare instantly. Hood was again patient with his composure.

"Listen, it was wise of Osman to have you as the leader of section one. But when it comes to UNSC Security council of which ONI is a 'PART'...I am the final deciding authority" said Hood in a commanding tone.

"Yes Sir, I acknowledge that. But why me?" asked Dare irately.

"You are the most trusted valuable source within ONI at present. Many war veterans have taken permanent vacation. Lasky is out there somewhere, so there's no experienced naval commissioned officers around, especially those I trust. If there's someone who can command a vessel like this next to people like Tom, Keyes, Cole...Cutter?, it's you. Your records as a past soldier speaks volumes. And I need someone who actually knows the meaning of the word 'Discretion' " said Hood with all honesty.

Dare was speechless but also not yet happy with his decision. There was a reason she chose to stay as an intelligence officer, being a captain is quite a pain in the ass.

"You are already in your 40s and due for promotion. This is your time. Captain Veronica Dare, commanding officer and ONI section 1 leader of the UNSC _Leviathan" said Hood._

"You even gave it a name?" asked Dare with a chuckle especially with the name of the giant biblical aquatic beast. Yes, this new INF class ship uses the fullest human technological potential that were sidelined for quite some time, it is truly a beast and a force to be reckoned with. Hood nodded and extended his hand. Dare looked at him with all the ambiguity.

She never thought she would handed over such an offer all of a sudden in a evening. Being an ONI officer, she had all that doubts naturally about why Hood did what he did. Of course, Dare was different among the ONI agents. She's ruthless but not cold hearted as Serin Osman or Parangosky. She's sagacious and does the right thing but also makes sure nothing stands in her way. This attitude sometimes have others misunderstand her character as a typical ONI. As Hood said, she's also highly discrete in her work and never divulge the nature of work to anyone, even among her working crew.

"*SIGH*...Fine, I accept your offer. But why do you hide this from ONI?" asked Dare finally accepting Hood's offer.

"I know how the section-0, 2, 3 will react to this. I don't trust them and even more when they framed Halsey and also when you revealed the information about a massacre they caused among the delegation between Elites and Brutes at Duraan. This new operation should not involve people from those sections. Osman is a viper, she'll learn things sooner than everyone. That's why I have personally kept it classified" replied Hood with a mild distaste in his tongue.

Dare acknowledged his points as she too knew those were true. She even knew that it was only a matter of time before the higher ups in ONI learned of a mole among them.

"You're right Sir, but you said something about a new mission?" asked Dare.

"Yes, A mission that's gonna change the lives of everyone and bring about a revolution. This new ship is gonna be the one to take part in that and you will be the one who will handle it with circumspection" replied Hood. Dare slowly walked near Hood's terminal and intently gazed at the still displayed images of the Infinity class ship.

"What's the mission, Sir?" asked Dare looking at him.

"Wait for few weeks, Once the drive is complete and fitted along with crew deployment and supplies, You will depart from Heian. As for the mission briefing, you will need to get to the UNSC research outpost on the Ark" said Hood which stunned Dare.

"Ark? The only way I know of getting there is through the Portal in Voi, not to mention getting everyone's attention" said Dare.

"No, you will get to the Ark from Heian, directly. According, Dr. Howard's calculations, You will reach Ark in 24 days from there with the new engine" replied Hood which amazed Dare regarding the capability of the new drive.

"Well, that's just great. Ok then, I accept your offer" said Dare with a smile.

"Thank you and you may leave now. You will be summoned when needed" said Hood to which she saluted and left the quarters. Hood then continued his work in his terminal.

One thing for sure, something's big is gonna happen it seems. That was Dare's thought before she left.

 **Ship specs:**

 **Name : UNSC **_**Leviathan**_  
 **Class : Infinity class(Same architectural design)**  
 **Size : Length-6000mtrs, Width-904.4mtrs, Height-1231.3mtrs.**  
 **Hull : Titanium-AX battle plate (4 mtrs), x2.5 durability and strength than A3.**  
 **Shielding : Human Energy Shielding.**  
 **Slipspace engine : Prototype engine developed by Dr. Brown.**  
 **Powerplant : Boglin fields - S83/H3FR **  
**Propulsion : 1 Primary and 2 Secondary repulsor engines**  
 **Sensors and Communications : Advanced Holographic Imaging system, spectroscopes, Lidar scans, Interstellar probes, 16 channel slipspace wavecom datalink.**

 **Titanium-AX:** _On April 2552, scientists from ONI's materials group conducted research for new ship hull plating. While A3 was already developed before that time, still the final testing revealed that it is still susceptible to heavy plasma burns. So they decided to develop highly dense yet less weight material by still enhancing the Titanium-A3. The result was_ _ **AX**_ _plating that is 2.5 times more dense and durable and were able to withstand heat of 1500 deg C without getting soft. But the mass fabrication at that time was costly. So they shelved it until the right time, which was the construction of 2nd Infinity class ship._

 _The strength of this new material was achieved by creating more lattice vacancies at melting point of Ti and reinforce it with carbon nano-particles and allow it to cool gradually. This creates a strong bond between the molecules of Ti-C thus improving durability._

 **Human Energy Shielding:** _Energy shields were first developed by ONI's beta-5 division in 2544 as a bubble shield format. Then after reverse engineering kig-yar point defense gauntlets, they were used in Mark V MJOLNIR powered assault armors. By May 2553, beta-5 division conducted research on developing highly efficient shielding systems based on Halsey's early breakthroughs in quantum physics. But the Aegis hard light module initially found on Intallation-05 gave them many ideas on how to generate coherent photonic matter to mimic as a solid surface._

 _On August 2553, ONI successfully re-purposed the Aegis module using Halsey's methodology as an instructional base to develop solid surfaces made of supercooled stream of positrons that are quantum mechanically locked through fermionic interactions. The photonic energy between the any two positrons emerging from their spin magnetic field can be reduced to zero point level that makes the particles of similar charge to pair closely and act as a single agent._

 _The same process applied to trillions of positron particles makes it to be spread as a plane surface similar to a hard light surface and mimic as solid object. This solid positronic surface can act as a bridge or even shaped to form dissipative energy shielding. When an energy based projectile hits the shields, the temperature gradient becomes high at the instant causing weakening of fermionic field. The shield strength is also directly proportional to the power input to the generator._

 _This was a significant innovation by Humanity without Forerunner reverse engineering, in post war period. But the production cost was high so it was kept under wraps until when extremely suggested. Leviathan uses this shielding.  
_

 **Prototype Slipspace drive:** _On February 06, 2551, Dr. Howard brown from the department of advanced theoretical physics hailing from Draco III published multiple journals on hyper accurate slipstream navigation after briefly studying the errors in exit vectors of previous ship operational records for decades._

 _According to him, Instead of brute force punch the UNSC adopted or surgical cut the covenant use, Creating millions of sub-nuclear singularities in the dimensional orders of 10^_ _-20_ _meters exactly at a point in the space-time fabric and enlarging it to the size of a ship's cross section through merging and additional supply of a single pulse of high energy density, thus preventing it from Hawking evaporation, can be used as a new way of slipspace travel. As the channel is generated from the quantum scale, the accuracy of opening the_ _ **right slipstream path**_ _to the destination through quantum gravitational mathematical modelling is unparalleled. Brown received awards for this innovative breakthrough.  
_

 _The problem is, any engine that uses this concept requires high power density and sophisticated materials to manufacture. At first, UNSC never had resources or facilities to build this kind of advanced technology. But thanks to Master Chief John-117's information, they managed to obtain a slipspace translocation device on Requiem by August 2557, which served as enough raw material for Dr. Brown to actuate his innovation._

 _This is yet another thing to add in their list._

 **S83/H3FR:** _It is a new power plant designed and developed by Boglin fields after they developed the S81/X-DFR for UNSC Infinity._

 _H3FR refers to Helium-3 Fusion reactor which is_ _ **4 times**_ _more powerful than the X-DFR. Helium-3 was considered as a highly potential fuel for fusion reactors. So they began running expedition teams in search for nearby He-3 reserves in higher quantity than what is available on Luna. Finally they managed to find huge deposits on the interstellar clouds most notably in the horse head nebula._

 _UNSC Leviathan is the first ship to utilize the H3FR power plant for it's systems._

 **Sub-light engines:** _Leviathan uses advanced Repulsor engines powered by H3FR power plant. The ship is fitted with 1 primary and 2 secondary engines slightly bigger than Infinity's._

 **Weapons:** _UNSC Leviathan boasts a wide variety of both conventional projectile and DE weaponry. There are 2 forward 8-series MAC guns with high charging efficiency of capacitor banks and new prototype plasma accelerator of 2 numbers below the MAC guns, thus making 4 main guns._

 _The plasma accelerator weapons use high energy streams of massive metallic plasma, compressed and accelerated by super conducting magnetic fields at lethal speeds. This uses the underlying concept of Magneto plasmadynamics though on a superior power scale that was previously impossible to be used as weapons. They work the same way as the MAC guns._

 _Then there are series of missile networks in even more higher numbers than what Infinity has._

 _There are also 3 heavy laser beam cannons of omega classification fitted in the both frontal sides and one at the dorsal side. Omega lasers are the most powerful laser beam in the power output range of 100 terawatts. UNSC had already tested this technology and decided that until a sophisticated power source was developed, this cannot be put into use. Thanks to H3FR, this was made possible. This much power output can tear through an Autumn class cruiser with relative ease and even pierce through energy shields and attack the hull at sufficient power levels._

 _Then the ship uses 90mm gauss point defense guns, 8 pairs of Anti- Aircraft 60-40 Nitroglycerine-Nitrotoluene warhead artillery that has the capacity to level a town._

 _Then last but not the least, Nuclear weapons. This new ship carries several SHIVA nukes, HAVOK missiles and one NOVA bomb in case of emergency. It also carries EMP mines that can mask it's signatures from enemy's sensor until triggered._

 **Complements:** _The Ship carries D79-TC pelicans, F-41 broadswords, Stratospheric missile Drones, V-91 Stealth gunships, M12B Warthogs, M820 Scorpion tanks, 12 nos. of M145D mobile artillery, three M510-Mammoths and 10 Strident class frigates docked at the ventral frigate bays._

 **Crew:** _22,500 working personnel out of which 8935 are Naval and another 4935 are Marine corps, 4322 forms the Army regiment, 89th, 95th and 102nd ODST divisions, 12 Spartan IV fire teams(60 in total), 700 intelligence officers from Section-1, 1350 Engineers, 1021 medical officers and the remaining 1237 civilians._

 **AI:** _The AI of Leviathan is a male programming named_ _ **'Jason'**_ _that comes in the same line as Roland. It was fully created on March 25, 2557. He appears as a man in Norwegian ski suit somewhere between 30-35._

 _Over all, this new Infinity class ship is a significant feat of Human engineering and technology that was developed out of their own idealization without external influence. It is now the most powerful warship at UNSC's disposal and the largest vessel surpassing the first one, though Hood had planned to give the original Infinity the same upgrades when it comes back._

 **...**

 **Omega station...**  
 **June 15, 2185,**  
 **08:30 PM GST**

The SSV Normandy and it's crew had completed the most important mission in hunting down the collectors and destroyed their base by traveling through the omega-4 relay. The ghosts that had been haunting them for years were finally put down, but Shepard knew that was just the beginning. The real culprits are the ones who threaten the entire galaxy, The Reapers.

Shepard first learned of them back in 2183 while hunting down Saren. The ship he had was one of the million Reaper ships called 'Sovereign' and he helped to destroy it. Then he realized that they hunt down the advanced civilizations in the galaxy every 50,000 years in the name of preserving life.

Then the collectors shwed up hunting down humans in their colonies which was revealed as a plan to construct human reapers. Then Shepard worked with Cerberus to find that the collectors were Reaper servants and that they are mutated Protheans, again projecting Reapers as the mastermind.

But now?...Shepard and his crew identified a mysterious new enemy, a parasite like creatures which they first saw over the derelict reaper ship at over the Mnemosyne's moon, Lethe and that itself costed them almost their lives and just escaped in miniscule luck. Again they had to face them in the Collector base which drew a lot of suspicion. Another troubling fact was that the parasitic hive mind calling itself the 'Gravemind' said that it was controlling the Reapers for millions of years which makes them their new target.

Apart from that, another troubling fact was that the Cerberus's conducting illegal experiments with the parasite spores somewhere in the human colony of Horizon and had been doing that for a long time without the crew's knowledge even Miranda lawson.

 **At the Omega's night club...**

Shepard and his crew members decided to take a short vacation after months of assembling the crew, training and preparing them to face the collectors. While they had completed the mission successfully, the horrors they faced and absolute nightmare and if in case anyone needed a sound sleep before they work their ass off again, they need to drink this moment away.

Shepard and the crew are at the Omega's night club where they are all enjoying the beer. Aria T' Loak wasn't to be found anywhere in that place. The whole club was active with all the people be it, humans, turians, salarians, batarians and asari. There were asari exotic dancers with whom those people seemed to be enjoying. There was this heavy disco vibrating the whole damn club that lifted everyone's spirits.

"Shepard, thanks for buying us many rounds" said Jacob gulping the beer in his glass and laughing. It was as Shepard promised back at the Normandy. Shepard too finished the round and replied.

"For all of us who made it outta hell in one piece!"cheered Shepard.

Jacob placed the now empty glass upon the bartender's counter and leaned over it's edge with Shepard adjacent to him in the same stance. Jacob's face slowly turned deadpanned and turned to look at the other squad members at a distant circular couch where they were enjoying themselves. Shepard got to see his face and he too turned to look at them and smiled. Jacob sighed and spoke.

"Hm, we just completed the preliminary round and we already feel like our fight's finished" said Jacob.

Shepard understood that statement. It was one hell of job after Cerberus brought him back alive. He was given a new vessel, a new crew and was asked to assemble a team comprised of top tier mercs, assassins, operatives, sharpshooters, a scientist, a reckless biotic bitch and a tank bred krogan with anger management issues etc., who doesn't give a damn about spilling someone's blood, fortunately that blood belonged to collectors. Surely, they deserved some rest though they knew they are long way from it.

"Only that this finished fight is just the beginning of our war against the real foe" replied Shepard.

"Reapers uh?..." asked Jacob gulping another round and shaking his head quick to relieve the kick.

"Well, you're right...and when they come, we would be ready to kick their asses once and for all...just like you did!"

"I wanted to say the same, but these reapers are not pushovers. We don't have to talk about them, now" said Shepard after having a round of beer. Jacob smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.

That was when they saw Miranda and Garrus approaching them. Shepard and Jacob adjusted themselves besides the counter to face the two.

"Somebody's enjoying a lot" said Garrus with a jest.

"Well, our fight had just got started and we need a little R&R. The reapers aren't gonna give us a break after then" replied Shepard to which Garrus chortled.

"You're damn right, Shepard. But, speaking of reapers, what's our next move?" asked Miranda folding her hands. Shepard glanced at the three and raised his eyebrows in slight vexation. He took a deep breath and spoke.

"Admiral Hackett and I-...uh...had a conversation. Since we've defeated the reapers, I told him, it was time, I faced the music back on Earth" said Shepard not so enthused. Garrus and Miranda slightly nodded in resentment.

"Batarian system in the Viper, right?" asked Miranda to which he nodded.

"There's a lot of political backlash created with that incident. They are so much eager to go to war with us. To keep things under control, Hackett wanted me to surrender to the Alliance, so the committee can resolve this peacefully" said Shepard.

"Not to be pessimistic, but I don't see how they are gonna take the destruction of their system so lightly. As far as I remember, Batarians never liked humans and no one can differentiate a civilian and a cut throat among them" replied Garrus.

That was true. The Skillian Blitz and raids on Mindoir back on 2176 A.D culminated in the bad blood between the humans and Batarians. Shepard hesitated at first to destroy the alpha mass relay and in turn the entire system despite the impending reaper invasion at the back door. But the circumstance called for a binary choice. Either destroy the system and delay the invasion or have reapers at our door step. Shepard unwillingly chose the former that cost the lives of 300,000+ batarians. Shepard knew that his decisions were gonna be lambasted hard and even be met with retaliation though some like Hackett would see it logically right. However, duty or not, Shepard's gonna answer for that anyway.

Shepard looked at Garrus and approved his statement in his mind.

"Shepard, Don't take it as an obligatory statement. But you just changed our lives. Gave us a bigger purpose to look up on. You don't have to do this alone. Let us come with you to face the music together" said Garrus with a seriousness in his voice. Garrus always considered Shepard first as a friend before the superior officer. He meant those words when he said that.

"Yes, commander. You just contributed a greater part for humanity when others were sleeping. We all could come with you" said Jacob who too shared his concern.

Shepard was happy with their words and felt a sense of pride that he managed to bring forth a change as much as he could. But he's not a man who would drag others into trouble.

"Thank you very much, but that's not what we agreed. I don't want you in this hassle and that's an order" said Shepard to which Garrus sighed and nodded. Then Shepard spoke once again,

"Before we go our separate ways, I wanted to know certain things" said Shepard.

"About what?" asked Miranda.

"I take it that Mordin must have gone to his old clinic here, And I don't see Jack or Zaeed over there, so I presume they must have already left to take care of personal issues" said Shepard.

"So what? Want us complement your eagle eyes?" asked Jacob with jest. Shepard smirked and then continued.

"Miranda, I tried to contact the Illusive man for 2 hours straight back at Normandy. But there wasn't any response. Do you know anything about that?" asked Shepard. Miranda's face turned serious and kept her fingers over her chin thinking deep about the query.

Actually, she too was confused with the Illusive man's silence. He was the most interested man regarding this mission and now he stays like he never cared. That was too odd for him. He had never been careless in his work, especially this. He invested a great fortune to kill the collectors and was the biggest player in helping Shepard. Now he acts like he wasn't in the playground.

"Illusive man would never be this careless, taking the fact that he was the architect of this suicide mission. Even my efforts at contacting him were in vain. I need to check this out immediately" said Miranda. Before anyone could respond, Garrus talked with urgency.

"Shepard! We all totally forgot about something!" said Garrus and others were blinking in confusion.

"What?" asked Jacob.

"A month ago, we all met the strangers of this galaxy. Those people calling themselves 'Spartans' with a big ship at their disposal" said Garrus to which everyone's eyes widened in surprise.

Garrus was right, they totally forgot about those UNSC people whom they met more than a month ago. Even they showed them the evidence that they were from a different universe which they can't digest even now.

Shepard and Tali knew the real truth about their arrival which was even more a greater mystery. The spartans said that they traveled to this place to help them fight the reapers especially because someone from their universe had a sense of this annihilation. Shepard never divulged this information as he was still with the Cerberus and didn't want them to know about that.

"Ah Yes! Them. We have no idea where they are and no means to communicate them" replied Miranda.

"I know" thought Shepard. Yes, the spartans gave Shepard and Tali, a special secret link to contact them.

"And we also have no idea on their level of activity in this galaxy...Which is quite troublesome...but not to worry much" said Jacob.

"With the level of technologies they possess, we can even ask them to help us fight the reapers" said Garrus to which Shepard mentally laughed though kept a stoic face.

"Amidst this talk, we also forgot that we have a new foe. That parasite" said Shepard which immediately turned everyone's face grim with mild fear.

Of course, while the reaper threat was enough for them, this parasitic organism formed out of the sage colored mist strikes more fear in their minds. They had never seen anything like those creatures before. Especially, Shepard can never forget it as he had this weird conversation with the parasite hive mind which claims it's existence in this galaxy for 10 million years and says it shares the reapers goal and that it also has influence over them. Shepard was shocked to hear that. Even the Prothean beacons never revealed anything about these parasites. 10 millions means these things resides the Milky way for 200 cycles.

"Actually, back on the derelict reaper, we learned that Illusive man had already obtained samples of it and secretly working with it at a facility in Horizon for which I don't have the authorization" replied Miranda. She already started doubting her boss when she learned of this.

"So, what do we do?" asked Shepard. Miranda was calculating the possibilities,

"Something can be done. I need to know what Illusive man's up to. I must immediately leave Omega...Tonight" Miranda rushed up her words and then turned to face the commander and spoke once again,

"Thank you for the party. That was nice warm up. See you later" said Miranda .

Shepard nodded in approval. After completing this mission, Even the on board Cerberus agents earned his trust because of the morals, each and every situation taught them in this mean time.

"In that case, You know who to turn back if you need any help" said Shepard with a smile. Miranda nodded gladly and decided to leave Omega as of then. She turned back and walked towards the exit and stopped mid way to see Shepard.

"And Shepard? Good luck" said Miranda to which he waved her a glass of wine in response. Miranda then left the place.

Garrus, Jacob and Shepard watched her leave. Garrus sighed a bit and had a round of turian beer.

"So Garrus, what's your plan?" asked Shepard.

"Nothing, Just gonna pay a visit to my old man and share this adventure"

"Do you think now, your father's gonna accept your decision of becoming a spectre?" asked Shepard with a smirk. Garrus's father Castis Vakarian was a C-sec officer and had a general distaste for spectres as they work above law which is contradictory to his own beliefs. Thus he spoke Garrus out of that idea and had a friction in their relation ship.

Garrus chuckled a bit and spoke.

"Huh, never. But who cares! Though I'm little worried about our people's readiness in facing the reapers. Still, there are many millions who think that's bullshit" said Garrus frustrated.

"It's gonna be a tough fight, but we'll manage" replied Jacob who was listening to their conversation. Garrus half-heartedly shrugged his shoulder.

"Any way, thank you commander. I too will leave Omega tonight. Thanks for the drink...take care" said Garrus, saluting him and left the club. Shepard nodded with the soldier to soldier respect.

By that time, Shepard and Jacob watched the remaining crew members already dispersed from their couch. Joker was the only one who stayed and shook hands with them before they left the place.

"Looks like everyone's leaving, so shall we" said Jacob. Then Joker came to see the commander and Jacob near the bar counter.

"Take it that everyone had a great time over there" said Shepard raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah, they all parted ways. Grunt's gonna get back to Tuchanka, Tali's returning to her flotilla, Mordin's decided to pick up all the trash in his clinic and leave for Surkesh...*SIGH*...Well, everyone needs a vacation" said Joker, slightly depressed as the crew won't be with them anymore.

"That's right, Joker. But it's also time for us leave" said Shepard. Joker wasn't fond of that.

"Ah, come on! A few more hours won't hurt" said Joker in a mischievous tone though not stable in that statement. Shepard wasn't amused as he was more serious about that.

"Joker, We both know that can't happen. I told Hackett that we would be there tomorrow" said Shepard. Joker turned downhearted as he too didn't like the Alliance court martial him. But he too knew that they had to face the repercussions. Joker sighed and spoke,

"Fine, Others in the ship had already left. it's only us, commander. I'll wait for you at the Normandy" replied Joker and slowly walked towards the club's exit door. Shepard watched him leave and then turned to face Jacob.

"So Jacob?" said Shepard

"Commander, I'm glad to have known you personally. See you some day" said Jacob with a smile and shook hands with Shepard out of respect. Shepard nodded and then he too turned to exit the club and leave Omega.

He walked towards the door glimpsing at what all had happened in the past 2 months while hunting the collectors.

After exiting the club, he reached the junction where there was an elcor bouncer checking in on people before they entered the club. He reached for the door straight in front and then turned left to walk the narrow pathway. The door at the end was the place where Normandy's docked with it's front air lock.

 **aboard Normandy...**

The door opened and he entered the vessel. Then the door closed behind and decontamination procedures were on routine. After pressurization, Shepard entered the CIC and turned left to the cockpit. There Joker was already working with the terminal, checking the ship's systems and running diagnostics.

"Everything's ready?" asked Shepard.

"Aye aye! The Normandy's ready to fly on your word" said Joker

"Good. EDI, have you compiled all the recordings of our mission at the collector base?" asked Shepard. He had already decided to record every single event that followed. EDI did a great job in compiling those mission logs with appropriate time and event frame.

"Yes, Shepard. Those have been sent to your personal terminal. You can view it anytime" replied EDI. Shepard felt relieved as he can show these footage so that almost every ignorant species of this galaxy might realize their mistake of failing to identify the impending doom.

"One less thing to worry about" muttered Shepard and then turned to face Joker.

"Joker, set course to Earth. Notify me when we're about to get there...I need time to put my 'real' dress" said Shepard. Shepard was wearing the Cerberus officer uniform which would simply worsen the situation if wore that and stood before the Alliance personnel. He has his Alliance commander uniform at stock all the time even aboard the SR-2.

"Sure commander. Good night!" replied Joker amusingly. Shepard smiled back and nodded, leaving the grip off the helm's seat.

He then walked out of the cockpit to get the view of the empty CIC that was once filled with officers. As they had been assigned only for this mission and coupled with the fact that Normandy had lost full contact with the Cerberus command, the Illusive man himself. So they all decided to land on omega and go their separate ways. Now all that's present in the vessel were EDI, Joker and Shepard.

He can't let the feeling of loneliness get off his mind as even though 2 months weren't a big time spent together, It was great to share their experiences in the interim period. Even his yeoman Kelly chambers was not there. Shepard mentally sighed and walked over the elevator and made his way to his personal quarters.

Thus comes the real 'Pain in the ass' for the Milky way after the 'Walk in a park'...

...

 **Spartans base, Titan nebula**  
 **June 15, 2185 08:45PM GST**

The Blue team excluding Jorge, Lasky, Palmer, Carter and the Arbiter are back at Lasky's quarters. Chief and his team had put their respective armors on them. They were all standing in the big hall with the lights on. Morning, they just viewed the citadel news and saw the live telecast of Sparatus's warning. It had completely pissed off the UNSC and separatists forces. They had been charged for something they never took part. So as Chief suggested, They decided to go and meet them to avert an unnecessary crisis.

Lasky had his fingers in the temple and his eyes closed. He was in deep thought. It had been a few days since they arrived here and they had already found themselves in trouble

"Damn! I don't know what we're gonna do. Help this galaxy fight these Reapers or we fight everyone in this galaxy" said Lasky quite distressed.

Chief could understand his frustration as he too didn't like his. He and his team always believed that the council won't interfere in their affairs, but never thought they had this pointless grudge against them.

"If it were us alone, we would teach these council a nice lesson about manners, in our way" said Arbiter who had nothing but hatred though he didn't express it fully in his face or voice. Others turned to look at him in tense, not willing for anyone from their side to start a fight.

"We don't have to fight. Besides, these councilors are not the highest authority in this galaxy. Each councilor must answer their race's leader. In turian's case, Its the primarch" said Cortana from the base's common speakers connected everywhere. This information got them intrigued.

"Primarch? Like the president of Humanity?" asked Palmer curiously.

"Yes. The primarch has the power and rights to dethrone a councilor of their race with the other's help" said Chief. Laksy immediately got out of the couch with his eyes shrunken in curiosity.

"Then is it possible for us to meet them?" asked Lasky.

"Well, we don't have to. Because the way we see it, He's the only one who had foolishly done something like this out of arrogance and ego" said Linda. Others wondered why she said that.

"What do you mean by that Spartan?" asked Arbiter.

"It means, Not all intent hostility. Only Sparatus is directing his personal hate for humans towards us" said Fred. Others were silently processing the facts and planning to make the next strategic move.

Lasky walked around the couch and took a cup of coffee from the maker placed upon the counter. He took a sip and spoke up.

"That councilor had given us a month. I say we don't have to see them for now. Let's observe what's going on among them and see if someone looks through this issue. We all will meet them if the worst case scenario grows out" said Lasky in a firm voice. Others nodded in approval after a couple of seconds though not the Arbiter.

"Captain Lasky, I don't trust the words of someone who acts foolishly. What is the probability that they will keep their word?" asked Arbiter seriously. Lasky in fact acknowledged that question.

"Arbiter's right. We can't let them go on to war with the humans here when there's no need for it" said Carter voicing his opinion.

"In that case, you all stay here while we take care of this, Captain. We had been here for more than a month and are quite experienced in handling people here. We will talk to them or do anything eloquent to get them in line" said Chief.

Actually Lasky was hesitant to that idea of going alone, but saw the sense in it. The spartans themselves got a pretty much great fire power to deal with them. So he felt it was logical for him to accept this proposal.

"Even that's a good idea. We can even have them understand that they need to stand together to fight the reapers setting aside their differences" said Cortana.

Laksy's face was inscrutable. He currently leads a fleet as a de facto leader with the UNSC's most powerful warship. He cannot do anything without being provident in a place unknown to him. And he may be the commanding officer, but blue team has more than a month experience in this place and had greatly assessed everyone, so to some extent he had to rely on their wise council.

Still, everyone came through the portal just because Hood and Lasky wanted to help the Master chief and his team to be brought back safe and if possible and needed, help in his mission to unveil the truth about the portal and whatever threat or mysteries surrounding it.

"Well, we are in a completely different place. We only got a handful of ships in our fleet. We can't jeopardize our position unless or otherwise extremely needed at least for our good sake" replied Lasky again thinking to make the decision. He had to be careful as this involves a whole new level of politics.

"Hm, not to be rude, but good luck with this fool's errand. I accept this Chief, but don't involve you and your team too much into their politics. Try to convince them, but stay away as much as possible" said Lasky to which Chief nodded.

"Yes Sir. Besides, Cortana's doing her best to find a way out of this place" said Kelly.

"Good. It might be a lot of work pressure, but one that is necessary as of now" said Lasky to which the spartans nodded in acknowledgement.

"Besides, did you had any luck in contacting this human commander Shepard?" asked the Arbiter.

"No, we are waiting for his call. We wanted to leave him alone until he completes his collector mission" replied Kelly.

Lasky raised his eyebrows, nodded his head disapprovingly and sighed. It was truly a toughday for him. He really wanted to get to their place before it becomes another issue in their place in future.

Lasky then turned around the hall in confusion for few seconds and then spoke,

"Wait a minute, Where's our good old doctor? I didn't see her for more than a day" said Lasky is suspicion. The blue team glanced at each other and Cortana replied for them.

"Well, she's got something we gave to keep her occupied for the time being"

Lasky chuckled at that and talked.

"What? Scratching her head for research on this universe?" asked Lasky in a jest.

"Some-...thing like that, yeah" replied Cortana hastily to cover the reason. The fact of the matter is, She's in deep study about the testimonials that Cortana gave her and it would take at last 2 days to finish reading it. But for some reason, Chief and Cortana decided not to tell anyone except Halsey until the right time.

"Hm, Whatever. Alright, I'm gonna do some reading with this codex. So see you later. You are dismissed" said Lasky. The spartans saluted and left the quarters, including the Arbiter.

After getting outside, Chief turned to his team and spoke

"Get to our place. I will be back in a minute" said Chief. The spartans nodded and replied,

"See you, brother" said Fred and then they proceeded to walk their way to the personal quarters.

...

Chief stood there silently for a moment thinking about what just happened that day. It was then he noted someone walk from his behind and the footsteps were quite heavy with mild metal thuds. Chief simply turned his head to his left and caught sight of the Arbiter. He then turned fully to take a good at him.

"Arbiter" greeted John. Arbiter came to a stop in front of the Chief and he could easily say even amidst the Sanghelli face that he looked worried. John could see something was bothering his friend.

"Something's wrong?" asked Chief to which he stood silent for few seconds and then waved him to walk along the road with him. John did as he requested.

"I hope you have little time to spare, if you wish?" asked Arbiter cheerless. John couldn't believe he was talking with such humbleness coz he only remembers the Arbiter as a fearless ruthless warrior like a Spartan.

"I do. Speak your mind" said John to which the Arbiter looked slightly down and sighed.

"Yes, Do you know why we came here while we had a war to fight?" asked Arbiter. John was wondering the same thing. Arbiter was at war with Jul' Mdama's covenant faction and it was during that time, he uncovered the artifact.

"No, but we were wondering the same" said Chief feeling skeptic.

"That was because we never found that artifact in the lagoon nebula by an accident. We in fact searched for it" said Arbiter which stunned even the stoic John. He never expected this answer. Chief, abruptly stopped walking. Arbiter did the same and turned to face him.

"I don't understand. You searched for it?" asked Chief. He started to sense that something had happened unknown to everyone.

The blue team knew of the portal's existence only through the monitor of the Iridescent and that facility's secured tight. No one knew it's location. With out that, he wondered how Arbiter's faction might have already known about this portal and looking for it. Chief's assumptions were fluctuating such that he started to doubt whether there was any other unknown source by which the Arbiter could have learned about the artifact.

Arbiter reminded himself of the past events that moved at higher frame rate in a flash of a second.

"A month before we found the artifact, On one of the moon orbiting Sanghelios, Suban. Our people excavated a highly ancient ruins several kilometers deep that laid dormant for several years unknown. None of the scanners revealed existence" said Arbiter. John was highly tantalized to hear that.

"What ruins?" asked Chief.

"We know nothing of that except that it is not Forerunner in origin" said Arbiter.

"How come you never found that until then?" asked John feeling suspicious.

"We planned to mine in the deep crust 5 kms from the surface. That's when we found that. All these times, it had stayed under our plain sight, don't know for how long" said Arbiter.

Chief was centralized on the information about the ruins. He wondered that if not the Forerunners, then who could it be. If he remembers anything with correlations of recent facts, then there are only two possibilities that comes to his mind when talking about ruins. It's either the ancient humanity who were as old as the Forerunners or these mysterious race called the 'Precursors' that Cortana said something about on the day they finished this base. But he cannot say that for sure.

"So what did the ruins carry?" asked Chief. Arbiter's face turned mildly horrified. He kept moving his mandibles in adjustment.

"Arbiter?" called out Chief.

"That ruins had an artificial structure, it was...never like anything we've seen before" said Arbiter with all the incidents played like a movie in his mind live as he was explaining.

"I went near...and touched the surface of the structure-...And..." said Arbiter and stopped to fully feel what he saw back on that day. Even after a long time, it was still like he saw it yesterday.

"It showed me the visions of the Artifact in the Lagoon...then into the dark space beyond the rim exactly at a particular region which I managed to identify. Then everything turned blank and I was thrown back with a force" finished Arbiter.

Chief listened to him very carefully trying to decipher this problem. This was something he never heard of, a structure that carried memories or stored data hidden for a long time, this day was getting weirder for him.

"What did you do then?" asked Chief.

"Ever since I touched the surface, Even without knowing those locations, I was subtly guided to those places exactly. Even now, I remember them. The first place we visited was the dark space. But strangely, there was nothing there. We triple checked that zone but we found nothing. We didn't understand why. But the second place we visited was the portal, and it stayed the exact same place as seen in the visions. After hunting down the loyalists for a month to reduce their numbers, we decided to take a look into that matter. That's when-..."

"You called the UNSC HighCOM and notified them of the portal, I can understand that. But what prompted you-..." replied Chief finishing Arbiter's statement.

Prompted me to notify your people?" asked Arbiter. Chief nodded in acknowledgement.

"When we went near the portal the second time, We picked a UNSC signal in the zone of million mile radius around the artifact. We tracked it's vector and it was inexplicable that the UNSC signal vanished directly into the portal. That's when we realized it was our responsibility to notify you. But when we did that, Your leader, Hood already received a message from your construct that it was none other than you and your team" replied Arbiter.

Chief now understood how the UNSC got here and who was the first person to notify of the portal and above all, what was the reason for the Arbiter himself to get here leaving his place. But what he never understood was an unknown ruins on Suban that gave Arbiter visions of the portal and a strange zone in the dark space. That was what peeling his mind in confusion.

"Is it still necessary to leave your people back there?" asked Chief. Arbiter knew that was a logical one. Of course, he could have stayed behind, but chose not to do so. Arbiter's face turned evasive and laughed a bit.

"Huh, I could have" said Arbiter, his face immediately turning dead serious.

"But Spartan...Ever since I saw the ruins, there was this unexplained feeling inside me. Something tells me that things are never going to be the same for all of us. Something big, is coming spartan, I know that, I can feel it and I can say that it's not good. The only thing we should worry about is whether or not we are ready to face it" said Arbiter. John was confused at the same time alarmed at his statement.

"Face what?" asked Chief suspiciously.

"The coming storm" replied Arbiter in a grim tone. While John can realize that something has turned awkward, he can't understand fully what Arbiter was saying. Part of the statements were cryptic.

"You seem to know a lot more" said Chief immediately interrupted by the Arbiter.

"Yes, But something is preventing me from telling that to you. But I can show it to you, show you what I saw. May be you can understand then" said Arbiter. John decided to better look into whatever Arbiter's got in store for him, maybe he can figure something out.

"Right, what is that you want to show me?" asked Chief.

"Follow me to my quarters" replied the sanghelli. Then both made their way towards the Arbiter's quarter's. John's curiosity rose to peak as all the conversations he had with him now seemed too cardinal for something. He intended to find that out.

 **...**

 **September 15, 2557**  
 **Milkyway, galactic Rim**

The galactic Rim of the Milky way had always carried lots of mysteries than any other region of the galaxy. 100 millennia ago, the Rim was once rich in biological life. It was active with civilizations who utilized the astronomical resources effectively for their advancements. But after then, the region became nothing short of a desert. The whole border stands empty, abandoned and devoid of any flourishments.

It stays the same even to this day. UNSC and the Covenant forces never managed to look into the border because of one reason, that is their ineffective slipspace drive. With the UNSC and Covenant race's smaller sphere of influence compared to the still significantly larger unexplored parts of the galaxy, it takes a long time for them to cross a particular distance. UNSC drives can over 2-3 light years in 24 hours with early prototypes. Now with the current advancements, still they can barely cover a 100 light years in the same time span which is still pale compared to covenant and the forerunner abilities.

Yet this human advancement in the post war period was due to the recovery of the forerunner drive which they retrofitted into the Infinity. UNSC's attempts to reverse engineer the forerunner engine was a 90% failure, but the 10% success lead to this significant improvement. But if humans found the way to use the slipspace crystal, they can squeeze out the power to cross incredible distances, but they need an energy source that can sustain such an operational power density with out failure.

The galactic border unknown to many races, contains a lot of worlds rich in useful resources and interstellar dusts of hydrogen and dark matter. Anyone new to the place can only listen to the infrasonic sound of the quantum vacuum and the planetary bodies.

 _/_ : _UNKNOWN SYSTEM IDENTIFIED_  
 _STAR CHART REFERENCE..._  
 _PRIMARY LOCATION: GALACTIC RIM, MILKY WAY_  
 _COORDINATES(approx): 900 Lys in Y-frame, -2.3_ _o_ _apparent shift from the galactic center_

 _/_ : _SIGNAL OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN FROM PLANET **A!#$%^FG** (UNINTELLIGIBLE)_  
 _/_ : _PERFORMING FAST FOURIER FILTERING..._  
 _ISOLATING INTERFERENCE NOISE..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _SIGNAL DECRYPTION FAILED..._  
 _/_ : _REROUTING SUBROUTINE CONTROL TO #137-23A-CRB..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _/_ : _WAKE UP PROTOCOL INITIATED..._  
 _/_ : _PRIMARY SYSTEMS ONLINE..._  
 _/_ : _ROUTING POWER SUPPLY TO ALL THE STATIONS..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _..._

 _/_ : _RUNNING SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTICS..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _FOREIGN MICROBIAL PARASITE DETECTED AT STATION 03-A15..._  
 _/_ : _INITIATING DECONTAMINATION PROTOCOL AND DE-PRESSURIZING OF 03-A15..._  
 _..._  
 _..._  
 _DONE..._  
 _/_ : _LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS - NORMAL_  
 _/_ : _POWER SUPPLY - NORMAL_  
 _/_ : _WEAPONS DIAGNOSTICS - ALL UNDER EXPECTED PERFORMANCE_

 _/_ : _FINAL TRANSFER OF COMMAND CONTROL TO CAPTAIN INITIATED..._  
 _TRANSFER SUCCESSFUL..._

 _DATE AND TIME: SEP 15, 2557 (From the last mission recording)_  
 _17: 32: 54 HOURS (EARTH Std)_

A lone ship was drifting in space which just entered a star system in the borders. The ship was UNSC from it's design, but doesn't match the current standards. It looked old and had very much seen a lot of action in the past. The technology it carried was almost considered obsolete even in the current UNSC. But it's fusion reactors were still intact and supplied steady uninterrupted power.

All the weapons came online with the archer missile pods protruding out, ATAF missile batteries coming out as if they found a target. Then the ship's port side windows opened up in the bridge to reveal a planet at a distance of 1,000 kms, whose Rayleigh scattering effects over the atmospheric horizon revealed a deep blue mixed with cyan light. Though the scattering was poor because the planet seemed to lack enough atmospheric density.

At the cryo bay, all the cryo tube controls went green and the doors pop opened up with the cryo gas expanding out in the atmosphere. Then slowly, UNSC personnel started to wake up feeling an immense strain in their muscles. The tubes opened one by one in all over the cryo bay that was holding 5770 individual personnel which included the bridge crew, engineers, medical officers, marines, ODSTs and 3 spartan IIs designated S-130, S-092, S-042.

Then in one of the cryo tube, woke up an officer who was 52 yrs old but still retaining the scars of war in the face and that daring attitude, wearing an officer uniform that had the UNSC captain insignia. He heard distant voices around him but damped due to the glass. He then rapidly got out of the tube and drew a number of long deep breath. After his heartbeat and pulse stabilized, he then walked over the controls to take his traditional cap that was hung over. He took it and then wore it.

His uniform read the name, Cptn. James Cutter, commanding officer of the UNSC Spirit Of Fire, a Phoenix class colony ship that was declared lost with all hands by the UNSC.

"Welcome back, Captain" cheered a medical officer to which Cutter smirked and nodded.

"A quick medical scan-..." said the officer who was scanning him using his data pad and checked his vitals.

"Done. You are good to go, Sir" said the officer.

"Thank you officer" replied Cutter who then proceeded make his way towards the bridge.

Captain Cutter is a war veteran who began his career as commissioned officer for the first time on 2507 and was personally hand picked by the legendary vice admiral Preston. to be the commanding officer of the UNSC Spirit Of Fire around 2525. Even the current fleet admiral Lord Hood once served under Cutter's command around 2528. A man who could have easily made it to the rank of Admiral if he wanted to, but stayed behind due to his lack of political ambitions and his unwillingness to step over others head.

The last mission he part took was the Harvest campaign, then to Arcadia and then to the Forerunner Shield world 0459. On harvest, they found a forerunner map which led them to Korinth prior system. Before that, they had to get to Arcadia to fight the raiding covenant and rescue the kidnapped Anders. Then at the shield world, the crew stopped the covenant from gathering the forerunner fleet by triggering a supernova using the SOF's slipspace drive as a bomb and in the process, they lost a good soldier named Forge who made sure the bomb went off and won the battle.

After losing the slipspace drive, the ship was drifting in space for 26 years and finally reached an unknown system at the rim.

The ship is a sort of legend among the UNSC, having served for a long time in the pre-war era as a colony ship for at least 50 years before being refit as a military vessel. This makes SOF as the oldest ship, still intact under UNSC's disposal.

In just one hour, almost all the crew members woke up and were relieving themselves of all the stress due to sub-zero cold and was ready to take orders from Cutter.

"Sir, glad to be back. Me and the other crew are ready to take control in the bridge" said a bridge officer named Lt. Peterson who approached and saluted him on his way. Cutter smiled at him and it had been 26 years since he used his vocal cord. But it's not like being rusty.

"Alright Lieutenant, I'll see you and the others at the bridge" ordered Cutter and his voice had quite changed due to long cryo sleep. The officer nodded and left the place.

Soon the whole ship saw great activity, with military personnel seeing to their weapons and military armor, Engineers checking for diagnostics and maintenance. Cutter turned his head to his right to look at the cryo tube, that was just then given the wake up stir. The tube had a name plate at the top of the door that read...Prof. Ellen Anders.

"Wake up professor, We got a lot to do" muttered the captain and walked towards the cryo bay exit to reach the bridge. On the way the people did a crisp salute when they see him, no matter what they did. Cutter used an old ship board tram system to reach the command deck.

At the bridge, Cutter was welcomed by his crewmen,

"Captain on deck!" barked Lieutenant Peterson, bridge officer who assembled the others to the bridge. Everyone gave a crisp salute to him.

"At ease people. Peterson, send a message to prof. Anders to get here once she's out of the cryo" ordered Cutter.

"Yes Sir" the officer acknowledged.

At the cryo bay, Prof. Ellen Anders woke up and got out of the cryo and relaxed herself for a few minutes while the cryo engineers were doing their routine checkup on the pods and medical officers were checking her bio-readings.

Anders was originally assigned to the SOF to serve as the science officer for their shield world mission. The covenant used Anders to release the forerunner fleet as they needed a reclaimer. She also happened to face a deadly parasitic life without knowing that it was the flood. In the ensuing battle, she lost John forge with whom she was romantically involved. Even as of now, she mourns his loss.

"Well, your vitals are normal, professor, you are good to go" said the medical officer after examining her using the hand held bio-map sensor.

"Thank you. Where's the captain?" asked Anders feeling relaxed that nothing was wrong about her.

"At the bridge waiting for you" replied the officer. She nodded and after the officers finished their examination and left the place. Anders stretched her neck and looked at her arms and folded her fingers multiple times to relieve it of stress after being kept dormant for a long time. Anders then headed straight to the bridge to meet the captain after a very long time.

...

After 10 minutes, Anders reached the bridge taking a good look of the outer space with a planet appearing in front through the port view. She raised her eyebrows in astonishment and felt a sudden temporary joy that finally they might have reached home. But that thought was immediately shoved aside as something she saw wasn't right with the planet. She recognized that it was neither UNSC nor the Covenant as both parties would have made a distinguished kind of contact with them.

She then walked over the Captain and instead of a greeting,

"Captain, we need to see what's there in the planet" said Anders finally coming into the captain's view. Cutter nodded in disapproval and let an evasive smile.

"Well, Good to see you too after a long time, professor" said Cutter.

Anders couldn't control the big smile due to his humorous response.

"Ugh...Sorry Captain, great to be back" said Anders. She then immediately went to work in the holo table and brought some screens and manipulated it get a reading on the planet and the system. She then got to see a subroutine program notification that was blinking in another holo-screen. Her vision turned concentrated towards the notification.

"Captain, you need to see this" said Anders who then opened the notification only to see that the program was what that awakened them. Cutter also saw all the subroutine command lines and comments. His face turned suspicious.

"So this subroutine program is the reason why we are awake. The ship's sensors had detected this planet and...what the hell?" said the captain who was distracted by a new image of comm wave which drew a lot of suspicion.

"Sir, its a signal from that planet, but our systems couldn't decrypt it. Either it's advanced or highly secured. Serina-..." said Anders, her face frowned after saying the late AI's name. Cutter too felt sad for 2 seconds. While the crew only got to work with her only for a short time, while sleeping almost till her end of lifespan, still it was quite an impact she made on them.

"I think she left a message" said Anders who then played a recording that Serina did two decades back.

After selecting the file, then came a voice.

 _"Greetings Captain, take it that you are still alive"_ a hologram came up, of a young woman from the holo table, dressed in white and black talking in british accent. And the tone wasn't expressing pleasant mood. It was quite distressful. Anders and Cutter etched their eyes at the AI's pre-recorded image. The other bridge crew members were slightly distracted by Serina's voice.

 _"The ship's in a situation that I...could not anticipate"_

 _"I'm certain the professor would enjoy that little admission, so let's keep it between us, Shall we?"_

 _"We've been a drift over 26 years as of now. I have made quite a few repairs while you people were sleeping, so ship's systems are 100%"_

 _"Cryo worked well and med stats of all working crew are green"_ said the woman. Up until, this point, the tone was professional. But then it became personal and a bit...emotional.

 _"As for me?...Well"_

 _"Regulations are clear about the final dispensation of AIs after the 7 years life span"_

 _"I took care of my arrangements on my own rather not wake you up, I didn't want to-..."_

 _"Well, I hope you can forgive me this final breach of protocol. It was a pleasure and an honor working with you, Sir. Do look after everyone for me would you?"_

 _"Good bye Captain. That would be my last words...Serina out"_ finished the AI. This was a pre recorded message from the UNSC AI Serina which went operational from 2530 and reached the full rampancy state by 2537. But she took care of her own disposal at the right time. Before her eventual termination, she developed certain sub-routines to be performed in future in case of any contingency event.

Anders and captain Cutter looked down despondently, but felt proud that she did her best for the crew when they wake up a long time after. Now Cutter turned serious and professional.

"So our astro navigation showed that we are at the galactic rim in an uncharted system that has 15 planets orbiting a B type star with us positioned above the 4th one" said Anders then bringing another hologram and manipulating it to bring a rough mapping of the planet with topographical data as much as she can.

"This certainly is not our vacation. Lieutenant, check for any fleet or ship activity around the 3AU from this planet" ordered Cutter. The officer obliged and ran through the systems to check.

"Nothing sir, though I read a faint magnetic activity at multiple spots north west to our position, but it's clear we don't see anything. Must be some sort of geomagnetic residues from the planet" said the officer. Cutter's face turned suspicious. A magnetic activity with nothing in plain sight is something he didn't wish to take it as mere natural phenomenon.

"Lt, keep track of it and tell me if you find anything unusual" said Cutter t which he acknowledged. Cutter then turned his attention to Anders.

"Huh, there's not enough data from this geographic scan. But what is this signal we received?" asked Cutter.

"Multiple algorithms had been ran in the last few hours and none did one good. Maybe we can see to this if we get a team down there, Sir" suggested Anders.

"We know nothing of this system or the planet. Professor, our crew had already seen hard times. It would only be a matter of time before we realize our mistake" replied Cutter and yet his face turned curious.

"But, At the same time, we need to find a way back home. It's been 26 years, we don't know the current state of the galaxy. So I say, we get to the planet side as you suggested. If there's a signal originating from there, Then definitely there's someone down. We'll send a secured team to scout ahead. Red team and hell jumpers would lead the others" said Cutter with cleared throat.

"Apart from the spartans and ODSTs, others are gonna need breathing support as the atmosphere is thin. Sir, but you have to send me there to analyze the data" said Anders looking at the planet through the port side window ambitiously. Captain Cutter accepted the former statement while fervently rejected and immediately turned to object her request. Of course he would as she's a high value individual and will never let her get caught at the enemy hands.

"Negative professor. That won't happen. This is not a field trip" replied Cutter.

"Sir, without an active AI, it's really gonna be tough for us to manage on our own, no offense" said Anders trying to convince him.

"None taken. That's quite true, but still there has to be another way that doesn't involve you, going down there" said Cutter with a determined voice. Anders doesn't need explanation to captain's worries. She then kept thinking until she hit upon an idea.

"Okay, I think we can do something about that" said Anders to which the captain looked at her, intrigued. Anders proceeded to talk.

"There's a covenant Q-band slipspace signal tracker I managed to recover back on that destroyed world. They use it for tracking comm waves in the slipspace for long range instantaneous communication" said Anders.

"I can make a wild guess that you want to use it. Then what?" asked Cutter folding his hands. He already predicted, how this was gonna play out and was interested to listen.

"Let the spartan team take it down there. That tracker will detect the signal-..." said Anders working with a new hologram isolating Serina's old junk AI processing command lines to manipulate it into a new set of instructions to be carried out.

"...-And transmit to the ship. My new algorithm will try to decrypt it successfully as it can understand covenant systems" said Anders turning to face the Captain. Cutter was satisfied with this plan and decided to go ahead with it.

"Good, professor. Give the tracker to Jerome and then take care of the rest" ordered Cutter.

"Yes sir" she saluted and left the bridge. Then Cutter contacted the spartan II red team.

"Jerome, I need your team and ODST - ZERO for a scouting mission. Your landing will be followed by 3rd platoon in 10 minutes and I want you all combat ready. We need to investigate a signal from this planet we're above for which the relevant information will be sent to you" ordered the captain.

"Acknowledged Sir. We are ready for immediate deployment onto the ground" replied the spartan. Cutter stared at the holodesk viewing the rough terrain mapping.

"And Jerome, Anders will come to give you a piece of equipment, a signal tracker before your team leaves the ship. Be careful with that" said Cutter.

"Yes Sir, 092 out" replied the spartan and the comm was cut. Cutter felt an inner urge to find a reason to all the chain of events that ended with them standing alive in this very ship after a long time. He kept gazing intently at the planet with nothing in his mind.

...

The spartan II red team comprising of the 092, 042 and 130 were once the washouts whose body rejected their augmentations, though retrained and re-augmented successfully. The three spartans formed a re-incarnation of the actual red team that had many other members. They were stationed at Arcadia in evacuating the citizens from covenant attack and that's when got recruited by the Spirit Of Fire in assisting them for it's mission.

Spartan Jerome-092, Douglas-042, Alice-130 are currently at the armory, preparing for the mission. They are the last of the few remaining spartan II super soldiers since the end of the war. In 26 years mean time, The UNSC made several advancements without the SOF crew. Thus the Red team is left with the old Mark IV MJOLNIR and old version weapons.

Even the MA5 series assault rifles they have is much less advanced compared to the current standard issue. UNSC have improved significantly in weapons, communications and imaging systems, 2nd GEN MJOLNIR with lots of improvements and last but not the least, Naval power. The crew don't know how much of a hurdles they might face than they expected.

"So, it's been a long time huh?" asked Alice loading her BR55 rifle and then unlocking the muzzle of a M6C/SOCOM.

"Yeah, Hope it's the UNSC down there or we've got ourselves a rock and roll day" replied Douglas, assembling and loading his MA5B assault rifle.

"Hm, I don't think the war might have lasted this long. Though the outcome is what that matters. We could have won or-..." said Jerome who was loading his rocket launcher, MA5B assault rifle and M6E pistol.

"Or we were done forever. But something tells me that it might not be the case, not a statement of pride...just my instincts" said Alice who finished loading and holstered all the weapons. Douglas and Jerome did the same.

Then they were approached by ODST from team ZERO. The red team turned to see him and the soldier saluted them. Usually, ODST's have an inner grudge against the spartans especially for their artificial superiority on contrast to their own hard, ass busting training and pride. But not everyone's mean, only the people from the 105th shock troop division. This heated rivalry began with a 14 yr old spartan II named John-117 beating 3 ODST soldiers to death and injuring one back in early 2525, unknown to everyone that it was a stage set secretly by ONI to test spartan IIs efficiency.

Apart from that, when it comes to performing their duties, they maintain that strict professionalism even if it means taking orders from an outranking spartan.

"Sir, ZERO is ready for ground side deployment"

"Very well Sergeant. Meet your team at the shuttle bay. I'll will debrief captain's orders" said Jerome.

"Yes sir" acknowledged the sergeant and left the armory. Jerome took his MJOLNIR helmet and had it on followed by Douglas and Alice. The displays popped up running diagnostics and bringing movement systems, power supply and other miscs online.

"Alright, a welcome mission after 26 years" said Jerome and then the three left the armory and headed to the shuttle bay.

...

It was an hour since they reached the hanger bay and they were waiting for the spartans to come. In the mean time, they were having a chat.

"So what do you think we would find in that planet, Sarge?" asked a ZERO team member designated ZERO 1.

"That egg head professor Anders found a signal originating from the planet. Captain wanted us and the red team to investigate it, that's it for now" replied Sgt. Ryan.

"Could it be the UNSC?" asked another soldier, ZERO 2.

"Maybe, but we don't know a shit about the current situation. What if we had lost the war? Then we are the last of the humans left" replied ZERO 1.

"I wanted to say, 'You're damn wrong!'. But we need to be prepared, that's being realistic" replied the sergeant.

The ODST fire team had loaded themselves with assault rifles, battle rifles, pistols and rocket launchers, a sniper and bunch of frag grenades.

The spartan II red team reached the shuttle bay where they saw military personnel moving around. Nearby a pelican drop ship, they saw the ODST fire team ZERO standing nearby ready for the mission.

The ODST team members saw the red team approaching them.

"Here they come" said ZERO 3. Others changed their stance.

"Senior chiefs on deck!" barked Sgt. Ryan and everyone saluted. The spartans stopped and

"At ease people. You all ready?" asked Douglas.

"We are born ready, Sir. So what is the mission objective?" asked the sergeant.

"We'll be the primary scouting team in search for the signal. But we'll be combat ready if things get south" said Jerome giving a data pad to Sgt. Ryan that had rough details about the planet and the location of the signal. Ryan took a close look at the details and so did his team.

"Is it UNSC, Sir?" asked ZERO 2. The spartans mentally sighed at the question.

"We hope it to be" replied Alice.

"Doesn't matter. We go with Captain's orders. We all will get hard dropped and after 10 minutes, 3rd platoon will secure the region. Setting up base and bringing wheels and supplies depends on further mission progress. I hope everything's clear for you" said Jerome in a clear cut tone and waited to get a feedback.

Ryan after taking notes of all the information from the data pad, handed it over to Douglas and then looked at Jerome.

"Yes sir" replied Ryan.

Meanwhile, professor Anders reached the shuttle bay through the elevator and walked towards the ODST team and red team. They all got their eyes on her arrival.

"Prof. Anders, Captain said you would come and...uh-..." said Jerome who was confused to see a strange device in her hands only to recognize it as a covenant module after bringing it closer to him.

"So spartans, this is a covenant tracking gear. Just keep it switched on all the time and be safe. It will detect the signal and relay it to the ship for decryption" said Anders giving the module to Jerome.

"Thought you would give us a hand, mam" said Sgt. Ryan. Anders let a faint smile and spoke,

"Sorry Sergeant. I do love field work, but not like this" replied Anders.

"The details suggest that the signal strength was great even at the edge of the system, means there is an equal probability that it might have reached any other group apart than us, worst case-Covenant" said Alice. Other looked at her and acknowledged her point.

They should be worried about them coz they don't even know that the war had ended 7 years ago and that the UNSC almost succeeded in turning yesterday's enemies into today's allies.

"That's possible, more reason for you people to hurry up. Good luck, gentlemen" said Anders and then left the shuttle bay. She used the same elevator to get to her place.

"Alright, let's get to the atmospheric insertion pods and stomp the ground" said Jerome and then the ODST team and Red team made their way to the SOEIV station.

They took the big elevator and then went 3 levels down. Then they reached a place where it had narrow pathway and broad pathway orthogonally. There were some warthog riders in service being tended by the Engineers and military personnel. Then at the end of the narrow hallway, they reached the SOEIV chamber.

They all got to see the standard pods that had been in use since the late 2400's, arranged in parallel, side by side with the UNSC insignia and the serial numbers printed over the surface.

Even the long range stealth orbital insertion pods were put to use by 2545 where by then the SOF was never in the picture. It is popular among the ODSTs but also among the spartan IIs. Too sad that these people's got a long way to even see and test them by themselves.

The 3 spartans and the 4 ZERO team members entered the pods. The on board class C dumb AI powered up the on board systems.

"Chute control good" said Jerome.

"Impact plating's reading fine" said Sgt. Ryan.

"Bringing the imaging sensors online" said Alice. That was it and just one button away from kissing goodbye to the SOF. The ODST's always got this usual catch phrase they used to bark before the jump. As of now, being the leader of the ZERO team did the honors.

"Alright apes! Remember what we used to say?" yelled Ryan.

"Feet first to Hell...SIR!" barked the 3 ZERO team soldiers.

"Insertion protocols initiated. let's move out" said Jerome. Then everyone, one by one released the holding gear. The pods immediately slid down the rails and was only a few meters with in the constraint. Then in the next couple of seconds, the 7 SOEIV pods reached the empty space with only the view of the planet and the vacuum between them and the planet.

 **...**

 **Well, that's it. From now on, the story takes a different tone and approach. See you all in next chapter.**

 **Well, Spirit of fire's here and they are not near the Ark like in Halo wars 2, but some place more and more important. But this part will follow the same paths as the game, like Isabel will be here.**

 **And yes, in my story, Humans are innovative and capable of their own advancements with the help of scientists like (Fictional) and etc.,etc., and not with alien tech stuffs. So don't complain that humans didn't reverse engineer forerunner tech like what we've seen in almost every fanfic. I have already stated the facts in the ship specs as for their advancements.**


End file.
